Teva Pharm Q1 net profit down, keeps '08 forecast

By Tova Cohen

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (TEVA.O) (TEVA.TA), the world's largest generic drugmaker, reported a fall in first-quarter net profit on Tuesday hit by a charge tied to its acquisition of CoGenesys.

Quarterly net income at Israel's biggest company was $147 million, or 18 cents per share, compared with $342 million or 42 cents per share a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, which excludes the $382 million charge linked to the acquisition, Teva earned 64 cents a share.

Sales at the company, which has a market value of more than $38 billion, rose 24 percent to $2.57 billion.

Teva was expected to earn 63 cents a share pre-exceptions on revenue of $2.53 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.

The company also took a $55 million charge in connection with auction rate securities. The company held $334 million in auction rate securities as of March 31.

Excluding the two charges, Teva's results were 6 cents above consensus, said Leader Capital Markets analyst Yoav Burgan.

"Otherwise, we haven't found any surprises in Teva's results," the analyst said in a report.