Catalina Marketing Corp. said its fiscal third-quarter earnings rose slightly from a year earlier and projected earnings growth of 20 percent to 25 percent in fiscal 2003.
The marketing services company said revenue in its third quarter, which ended Dec. 31, grew 6 percent to $114.7 million, from $108.7 million in the third quarter of the prior year. Catalina also reported that its quarterly net income was $17.4 million, up from $16.8 million the year before.
St. Petersburg, FL-based Catalina Marketing also said it adopted new goodwill accounting standards as of the start of the current fiscal year, which boosted third-quarter net income by about $1.4 million. Under the new standard, pro forma net income for the third quarter of the prior year would have been $17.8 million, the company said.
President/CEO Daniel D. Granger said Catalina's performance for the quarter was highlighted by Health Resource. Based in St. Louis, Health Resource is a business unit of Health Marketing Services, Catalina's healthcare subsidiary, that distributes in-store or through the mail targeted healthcare information, including marketing communications, to more than 16 million prescription-medication users weekly. Clients include drug and grocery retailers as well as pharmaceutical manufacturers.
“For the quarter, [Health Resource] revenue increased by more than 100 percent over the third quarter of the prior fiscal year, and it recorded its fourth consecutive quarter of profitability,” Granger said. Health Resource added more than 3,000 stores to its network in the quarter, giving it more than 17,600 pharmacy outlets at the quarter's end, he said.
Based upon client contract commitment levels and analysis of recent selling activity, Granger said, “we expect fourth-quarter consolidated revenue growth to approximate 20 [percent] to 25 percent over the comparable prior year period.”
