Quest Diagnostics reported Thursday that revenue and income grew modestly in the third quarter and narrowed its earnings guidance for the year.
Earlier this year, Quest moved its laboratory services for clinical trials to a joint venture with Quintiles. When accounting for the transfer of that business to the new company, called Q Squared Solutions, Quest's revenue was up about 0.9% to $1.88 billion for the three months ended Sept. 30 compared with the same period in 2014.
Quest reported a slight decrease in order volume compared with a year ago, and revenue from diagnostic information services was flat.
Adjusted net income, which excludes gains from the joint venture, grew 7% to $172 million. The clinical trials venture contributed $189 million to Quest's reported profits after tax. Including those gains, the company reported $342 million in profits for the quarter.
For the first nine months of the year, Quest's adjusted net income was $483 million, up 9.8% year over year, and revenue grew 2.3% to $5.64 billion.
The company said it now expects to see $7.49 billion in revenue for the full year, the low end of its previous forecast of $7.49 billion to $7.57 billion, and it revised its earnings guidance to $4.75 to $4.80 a share from its previous guidance of $4.70 to $4.85 a share.
