Costly FDA Review Coming to an End

Article Excerpt

MDS INC. $22 (Toronto symbol MDS; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 122.5 million; Market cap: $2.7 billion; SI Rating: Average) has completed reviews of about 85% of the tests performed at its Montreal drug-testing lab, as requested by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. European regulators may also ask for more data, but the FDA audits should satisfy most of their concerns. These audits cost MDS $0.02 a share in its third fiscal quarter ended July 31, 2007 (all amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). It also absorbed $0.05 a share in restructuring costs related to a recent acquisition. If you exclude all unusual charges, earnings jumped to $0.14 a share from $0.01 a year earlier. Revenue grew 24.4%, to $321 million from $258 million. If you exclude the acquisition, revenue rose 3%. The stock now trades at 44.9 times the $0.47 U.S. a share that MDS will probably earn in fiscal 2007. MDS needs to lure…