NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - May 13, 2011) - Daxor Corporation (NYSE Amex: DXR)
Three Months Ended
March 31, 2011 March 31, 2010
-------------- --------------
Total Operating Revenue $ 377,469 $ 396,272
Total Costs & Expenses 2,553,406 1,738,428
-------------- --------------
Loss From Operations (2,175,937) (1,342,156)
Total Other (Expense) Income (210,338) 1,833,829
-------------- --------------
(Loss) Income Before Income Taxes (2,386,275) 491,673
Income Tax (Benefit) Expense (1,060,013) 584,092
-------------- --------------
Net Loss $ (1,326,262) $ (92,419)
============== ==============
Weighted Average Number of Shares
Outstanding 4,226,137 4,247,285
Loss Per Share $ (0.31) $ (0.02)
Daxor Corporation (NYSE Amex: DXR), a medical instrumentation and biotechnology company, today announced first quarter earnings for 2011. The Company had a net loss per share of $(0.31) during the current quarter versus a net loss of $(0.02) per share for the quarter ended March 31, 2010.
Income tax (benefit) and expense for the three months ended March 31, 2011 and 2010 includes accruals of $680,566 and $1,820,468 for income tax and $54,435 and $767,025 for personal holding company tax. These tax accruals were completely offset by a reduction of $1,795,014 in 2011 and mostly offset by a reduction of $2,003,401 in 2010 for deferred taxes primarily attributable to the loss from the marking to market of short positions.
For the three months ended March 31, 2011 total operating revenues decreased by $18,803 or 5% to $377,469 from $396,272 in 2010. This is directly attributable to a decrease in kit sales of $18,301 or 7%. There were no BVA-100 Blood Volume Analyzers sold in the first quarter of 2011 or 2010. The significant reduction in Medicare reimbursement for diagnostic radiopharmaceutical products such as Daxor's Volumex Kit that became effective in 2008 continues to negatively impact the sale of Blood Volume Analyzers.
Company Management believes that this reduction in reimbursement for the Volumex Kit will ultimately prove to be self-defeating because it is likely to result in the discharge of inadequately treated congestive heart failure patients from hospitals. This will in turn lead to higher rates of readmission and increased death rates in congestive heart failure patients which could otherwise be avoided.
The Company engages in short-term trial agreements to allow customers to begin utilization of the instrument and to become familiar with the clinical benefits of a measured blood volume prior to purchase of the instrument.
Total costs and operating expenses for the first quarter of 2011 increased by $814,978 or 47% to $2,553,406 from $1,738,428 for the first quarter of 2010 primarily due to $870,909 of legal expenses from the SEC administrative proceeding.
The proceeding took place from March 7, 2011 through March 9, 2011 in New York City. The Company presented over 500 exhibits during the proceeding. Management feels strongly that this extensive documentation of its history of operations will demonstrate that it is primarily an operating medical instrumentation and biotechnology company and not primarily an investment company. The Company expects to receive a decision from the SEC during the Summer of 2011.
The SEC proceeding is described in greater detail in the Company's Form 10-Q for the Quarter ended March 31, 2011 which will be filed later today.
The Company has maintained and increased spending on marketing and research and development even as operating losses have increased. The Company has disclosed in previous public filings that it is dependent upon earnings from its investment portfolio in order to continue these efforts. Dr. Joseph Feldschuh, the Company's President and Chief Executive Officer, has sole responsibility for investment decisions with respect to the Company's investment portfolio.
At March 31, 2011, the Company had total assets of $92,666,632 with total stockholders' equity of $46,096,663 versus total assets of $91,195,415 and $46,995,044 of stockholders' equity at December 31, 2010. The decrease in stockholders' equity is mainly due to the net loss of $(1,326,262) during the current quarter.
The Company is committed to continuing its research and development program as part of the ongoing effort to develop products that are complementary to its current product line. There were 56 Blood Volume Analyzers in service at March 31, 2011 versus 55 instruments at March 31, 2010.
Gains on sales of securities and dividend income were $4,318,039 or 14.3% of average invested capital for the quarter ended March 31, 2011 and $6,644,790 or 23.1% for the quarter ended March 31, 2010.
The Board of Directors voted to declare a dividend of $0.15 per share on May 11, 2011. The dividend will be payable on Thursday, June 16, 2011 to shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 1, 2011.
In 2008, Management instituted a policy of paying dividends when funds were available.
For the Year Ended December 31, 2010, the Company paid a total dividend of $1.00 per share as follows: $0.10 per share on June 16th and $0.25 per share on September 30th along with a yearend dividend of $0.65 per share on December 30th.
The goal of Management is to follow a similar policy for 2011 and pay a total dividend of $1.00 per share for the year if funds are available.
For more detailed information on our financial results, please refer to our Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2011 which will be filed later today.
The BVA-100 Blood Volume Analyzer produced and marketed by Daxor Corporation provides key information that can be used to diagnose and treat various medical conditions including congestive heart failure, hypertension, anemia, blood loss during surgery, trauma, and shock (collapse of blood pressure). At the present time, physicians must treat these conditions by guessing whether or not they are due to volume expansions or contractions. The Blood Volume Analyzer allows precise quantitation of patients' total blood volume and red blood cell volume, which takes the guesswork out of this process. Appropriate therapies can then be employed to correct excesses or deficits in volume, leading to better outcomes for patients.
The passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590) in March 2010 gave Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) the authority to penalize hospitals for excess readmission rates in heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, and pneumonia beginning in 2013. Hospitals that readmit heart failure patients within 30 days of discharge will not be reimbursed. This has important financial implications, as it effectively penalizes hospitals for not optimally treating patients during their initial visits.
This highlights a significant opportunity for the BVA-100, which may be used to identify patients at higher risk of mortality due to inadequate treatment of blood volume overload. This may help to drive increased utilization of the BVA-100: Medicare reimburses hospitals on the basis of diagnostic related guidelines (DRGs). Under the current system, when a patient is admitted for heart failure, the hospital is paid the same amount of money whether the patient is hospitalized for 2 days or for 10 days. Not surprisingly, the hospital's physicians are under great pressure to discharge the patient as quickly as possible. This has produced a situation in which between 20%-30% of heart failure patients are readmitted within 30 days or less.
Contact Information:
Contact Information:
Daxor Corporation
Stephen Feldschuh
212-330-8515
Chief Operating Officer
or
David Frankel
212-330-8504
Chief Financial Officer