NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) — Shares in Invitrogen were down 11.81 percent, or $7.80, at $58.24 in mid-afternoon trading after the company posted lackluster earnings today.
As GenomeWeb News reported, Invitrogen today said third-quarter revenues increased 7 percent while last year’s profit turned to a loss.
In a statement, CEO Greg Lucier said that "after three consecutive years of double-digit revenue and earnings growth, we had expectations to achieve similar results this year. That has clearly not happened.
"As a result, we are executing plans to refocus the business on those areas where either science or our leading brand can provide meaningful differentiation," said Lucier. "These actions include focusing on improving our go-to-market strategy in regional markets to ensure our sales growth matches the leading reputation we hold for being the quality and technology leader in scientific tools, completing the acquisition integrations, and responsibly reducing our cost structure.”
Lucier said these plans “will set the company up for a solid year of execution in 2007.”
Not every investor agreed. Citigroup downgraded Invitrogen’s stock to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ today. According to Marketwatch, the bank’s broker said that although the company is close to wrapping up its business review, “management didn't provide sufficient clarity on the potential steps it may take to improve next year's outlook given recent operating margin pressures.”