Suddenly investors want Sirtex Medical shares.
In fact there’s nothing surprisingly good news from a company down in the books of investors, to reignite interest, and the share price.
The disappointments of 2017 with a poor trial and big write-downs and losses were forgotten yesterday.
Sirtex provided the stimulation yesterday for a 16% surge in its share price at one stage in the session.
The liver cancer treatment specialist flagged improved first-half earnings and a turnaround in second-half sales and off went the shares in a run that took them to a day’s high of $18.68, the highest they have been for around 9 months. They closed up 13.9% at $17.83
The company, which reported a $26.3 million loss for 2016-17 after write downs and failed clinical trials, told the market it now expects underlying first-half earnings for 2017-18 of $34 million – up 16% improvement on the previous first half.
Sales of the company’s SIR-Spheres microspheres – a product used to deliver medication to cancer sites inside the body – were flat in the first half but Sirtex CEO Andrew McLean, who took up his role in May, said the company expects higher sales in the June, 2018 half year.
“As a result of recent management initiatives, we anticipate higher sales in the second half, with ongoing targeted reductions in operating expenditure to drive business efficiencies and productivity gains, resulting in forecast full year EBITDA in the range of $75-85 million,” Mr McLean said yesterday’s statement.
Underlying earnings were $61.5 million in 2016-17.
Sirtex suffered slowing sales growth last year, including in its key US market, and the company took a $90.5 million writedown on research and development assets after a disappointing clinical trial result in May.
