NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Hologic reported after the close of the market Wednesday that revenues for its fiscal first quarter were up about 7 percent year over year driven in part by growth in its diagnostics and molecular diagnostics businesses.
The Bedford, Massachusetts-based firm reported total revenues of $695.2 million for the quarter ended Dec. 26, up from $652.8 million in the prior year and above the Wall Street estimate of $688 million. On a constant currency basis, Q1 revenues grew 8 percent.
Hologic reported sales of $310.7 million for its Diagnostics unit in the quarter, up 2 percent on a reported basis from $304.1 million in the year-ago period. Within Diagnostics, molecular diagnostics revenues were $129.6 million, a 9 percent increase on a reported basis from $119.1 million in Q1 2015, due to strength in Aptima women's health products on the fully automated Panther and Tigris platforms.
"The average Panther system globally now generates more than a $170,000 in annual assay revenue, despite being less than 30 percent utilized," Steve MacMillan, the firm's chairman, president, and CEO, said during a conference call to recap the earnings. "This demonstrates both the current value of the system and its future potential for customers and [for] Hologic as we add new tests for viral load and other targets in the years ahead," he said.
Hologic received CE marking for a hepatitis C viral load assay in the quarter, MacMillan noted. "It's going to be a fiscal 2018/2019 event in terms of the true viral load impact for us in the US," he said, adding, "We'll get [an assay for] HIV approved sooner, but frankly we ultimately want to have the full range of HIV, [hepatitis B virus], HCV, which we won't have really until later on in 2018."
Also in Diagnostics, blood screening revenues decreased 7 percent year over year to $60.7 million from $64.9 million, driven by ordering patterns with the firm's partner Grifols; while cytology and perinatal sales grew a fraction of a percent to $120.4 million.
In other business units, Breast Health sales were up 8 percent at $262.2 million, GYN Surgical sales rose 17 percent to $98.8 million, and Skeletal Health sales increased about 5 percent to $23.5 million.
US revenues grew nearly 13 percent in the quarter to $545.1 million, while international revenues were down nearly 12 percent on a reported basis to $150.1 million.
Hologic spent $51.7 million on R&D in Q1 compared to $52.0 million a year ago. Its SG&A expenses were $176.4 million, up 20 percent from $147.3 million in Q1 2015.
Hologic posted a net income of $84.9 million, or $.29 per share, as opposed to a $29.2 million, or $.10 per share, in Q1 2015. On a non-GAAP basis, its EPS was $.46, beating analysts' consensus estimate of $.42.
The firm reported cash and cash equivalents of $650.3 million. It provided financial guidance of projected revenues of $2.80 billion to $2.83 billion for 2016, or $1.86 to $1.90 per share, down slightly from previous guidance of $2.81 billion to $2.84 billion. This included an anticipated $25 million topline headwind due a stronger US dollar, Bob McMahon, Hologic's CFO said.