NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Beckman Coulter today reaffirmed its revenue and earnings-per-share outlook for 2008 and provided preliminary guidance for 2009.
The firm said that it still expects to report revenue growth of around 12 percent for fiscal 2008, with earnings per share in a range between $3.55 and $3.65.
It also provided preliminary guidance for 2009, saying that it expects revenue growth of approximately 5 percent on a constant currency basis. Beckman expects its cash instrument sales to be flat to slightly down, “against unusually high sales levels in 2008,” for 2009.
The firm noted that it has “implemented a zero overhead growth policy to control expenses,” and it expects to achieve its earnings-per-share growth in 2009 of 10 percent.
Beckman’s forecast stands in contrast to several other firms that sell capital equipment into the life sciences and diagnostics fields. Last week, Waters and MDS lowered their revenue expectations for the current quarter, and Agilent lowered its guidance for 2009.
In addition, investment bank Leerink Swann downgraded the stocks of several life science tool firms, citing tighter budgets for academic customers.
In late Tuesday afternoon trade, shares of Beckman were up 11 percent at $41.40 on the New York Stock Exchange.