DOW JONES NEWSWIRES 
 

Cardinal Health Inc.'s (CAH) fiscal fourth-quarter income dropped 14% on weaker sales and profit in its medical-products segment, though earnings matched and revenue beat Wall Street's expectations.

The company also raised its fiscal-year earnings view and gave a stronger-than-expected projection for revenue growth.

Cardinal on Aug. 31 will spin off its faster-growing clinical and medical-products business from its core drug-distribution unit, which has been hurt by hospital-spending delays. Moody's Investors Service last month said the the post-spinoff company will rely heavily on distribution, which has slim margins.

For the period ended June 30, the company posted income of $273.2 million, or 75 cents a share, down from $318 million, or 88 cents a share, a year earlier. The latest results included a 1 cent charge for classifying the company's British Martindale injectable manufacturing business as discontinued operations.

Excluding that and other items, per-share earnings fell to 86 cents from 96 cents, in line with estimates.

Revenue rose 10% to $25.2 billion.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of 86 cents and revenue $24.33 billion.

Gross margin fell to 5.4% from 6.4%.

Pharmaceutical-supply earnings rose 8%, helped by a sales rise of 11% amid growth in generic drugs. Medical-segment revenue fell 12% and profit 9% amid deferred hospital capital spending, foreign exchange-impact and a shipping issue.

Looking forward, the company forecast earnings for the new fiscal year of $1.90 a share to $2 a share, up from its June view of $1.87 to $1.91, on "low single-digit" revenue growth. Analysts expected a revenue drop of 1% to $97.56 billion.

Cardinal Health's shares rose 1.6% to $33.90 in premarket trading.

-By Mike Barris and Kerry Grace Benn, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2353; kerry.benn@dowjones.com