Homedco Posts Record Rise in Revenue, Profit

Homedco Group Inc. on Wednesday reported a record increase in revenue and earnings for the latest three months.

Profit for the company’s second fiscal quarter, which ended March 31, rose 45% to $5.9 million, or 44 cents a share, compared to earnings of $4 million, or 31 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue increased 67.9% to $116.6 million up from $69.5 million.

Homedco’s home respiratory therapy revenue grew by 93.4%, in large part because of the August, 1992, acquisition of Glasrock Home Health Care Inc. in Smyrna, Ga. Homedco’s infusion therapy business revenue grew by 28.1%.

“They bought a very large company (Glasrock) and have been able to integrate it very well,” said Vivian Wohl, an analyst with the brokerage firm Robertson, Stephens & Co. in San Francisco.

For its first half, Homedco’s profit increased 44% to $11.3 million, or 85 cents a share. Six-month revenue was up 68.8% to $230 million.

Jeremy M. Jones, the company’s president and chief executive, said Homedco is “in a unique position to contribute to cost-containment efforts under managed competition in a reformed health care system.” The company, based in Fountain Valley, has more than 215 locations in 46 states.

“I think the perception of the respiratory business is changing for the better,” Wohl said. “Growth is being fueled by a general trend toward more home health care. This is a better business than many people perceived it to be in the past.”

In Wednesday’s trading on the NASDAQ market, Homedco gained $3 a share to close at $30.50.