Teva misses and shares gain 6% -- why?

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NASDAQ:TEVA), Israel-based world's largest generic drugmaker, reported fourth quarter net income of $460 million, or 56 cents per share, up from $305 million, or 45 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding charges, Teva earned 53 cents per share, while analysts on average expected EPS of 58 cents and sales of $2.26 billion, according to Reuters Estimates. Sales during the quarter rose 63% to $2.28 billion.

But Teva shares have gained 2.3% on the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange and are continuing to climb here and are now (noon) up 6% -- why?

Well, it is actually not surprising. Teva said it expects sales in 2007 to exceed $9 billion (up from $8.4 billion in 2006) and earnings per share to be in the range of $2.07 to $2.19. In 2008, CFO Dan Suesskind said "sales will surpass $10 billion and earnings per share will be above $2.50."

Teva has 162 product applications awaiting approval from the U.S. FDA. These have brand sales of over $92 billion. Teva doesn't only have the largest pipeline in the U.S. generic drug industry, but 42 of the applications are potentially first- to-file, meaning these drugs would have 180-day exclusive sales rights if approved. The outgoing President and CEO Israel Makov said the company expects to receive 30-40 approvals in 2007.

At $37.48, Teva is in the mid-range of its 52-week range of $29.22-43.90, but has performed very well in 2007, gaining 21%. Teva pays dividends and has been repurchasing shares.

My colleague Gary E. Sattler wrote earlier today about love-stocks, stocks to buy and hold for a lifetime, or nearly so. Well, for me, Teva is exactly one such stock.