Medifast Earnings: Here’s Why Investors are Selling Shares Now

Medifast Inc. (NYSE:MED) delivered a profit and beat Wall Street’s expectations, AND beat the revenue expectation. The revenue beat is a positive sign to shareholders seeking high growth out of the company. Shares are down 8.81%.

Medifast Inc. Earnings Cheat Sheet

Results: Adjusted Earnings Per Share increased 211.11% to $0.28 in the quarter versus EPS of $0.09 in the year-earlier quarter.

Revenue: Rose 19.59% to $83.2 million from the year-earlier quarter.

Actual vs. Wall St. Expectations: Medifast Inc. reported adjusted EPS income of $0.28 per share. By that measure, the company beat the mean analyst estimate of $0.25. It beat the average revenue estimate of $82.9 million.

Quoting Management: “We are pleased with our ability to execute on our strategic initiatives in 2012 as we focused on driving operating efficiencies to maximize profitability long-term. Our team continues to generate improvements throughout our business with double-digit sales increases and higher profitability in Take Shape for Life, Medifast Direct, and the Medifast Weight Control Center and Wholesale Physicians sales channels,” commented Michael C. MacDonald, Medifast’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “In the fourth quarter we generated net revenue at the high-end of our expectations and earnings above our expectations, excluding a $2.0 million sales tax accrual net of tax.”

Key Stats (on next page)…