NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – PerkinElmer reported after the close of the market on Thursday that its first quarter revenues rose 2 percent year over year. The firm also reported organic revenue growth of 4 percent for the quarter.
For the three months ended April 3, the company reported revenues rose to $538.7 million from $526.9 million in the year-ago period, beating Wall Street analysts' consensus estimate of $532.7 million for the quarter. Adjusted revenue for the quarter was $538.9 million compared to $527.2 million in the first quarter of 2015.
The increase in overall revenues was led by a 3 percent jump in revenues for the firm's environmental health segment to $206.2 million from $200.8 million a year ago. Revenues for the company's human health business grew 2 percent year over year to $332.4 million from $326.1 million for the same quarter a year ago. Organic human health revenues rose 3 percent in Q1, and organic environmental health revenues increased 5 percent year over year.
On a conference call with analysts, PerkinElmer CFO Frank Wilson said that the company’s Q1 organic revenue grew in the low-single digits in the Americas, mid-single digits in Europe, and high-single digits in Asia.
PerkinElmer reported Q1 net income rose to $47.5 million, or $.43 per share, from $40.3 million, or $.36 per share, for Q1 2015. On an adjusted basis, EPS was $.56, surpassing analyst estimates for EPS of $.46 a share.
R&D expenses rose 5 percent for the quarter to $33.8 million from $32.1 million, and SG&A spending rose 1 percent to $147.5 million up from $145.9 million in the year-ago period.
PerkinElmer ended the quarter with $210.7 million in cash and cash equivalents.
The company has updated its financial guidance for full-year 2016, and is now forecasting adjusted EPS of $2.75 to $2.85, which is higher than current analyst estimates of $2.71 per share. The updated guidance incorporates $.06 per share from a stronger-than-expected Q1 2016 performance and $.04 from more favorable foreign exchange rates, PerkinElmer said. The firm also expects $2.32 billion in revenues for the full year. Analysts, on average, expect revenues of $2.31 billion for 2016.
On the call, Wilson also added guidance for the second quarter, saying PerkinElmer expects revenues of $570 million to $575 million and adjusted earnings per share of $.65 to $.66. Analysts expect revenues of $573.5 million and EPS of $.65 for Q2.
When asked about the company’s decision to sell its prenatal screening laboratory services business — PerkinElmer Labs/NTD — to Eurofins Scientific, Chairman and CEO Robert Friel said the decision was based on a combination of factors including the "fairly significant" regulatory and compliance infrastructure that the business division required. "Selling NTD ... effectively eliminates all our exposure to either federal or private payer reimbursement," he said on the call, adding "we thought ... our customers would be better served by a company with a broader capability and ... a stronger commitment to the US services market."
Friel further said that the company intends to focus on developing new products and capabilities for the NIPT space that it can offer to more channel partners. It has begun exploring potential opportunities for the newly acquired Vanadis portfolio with both imaging and chemagen sample prep products, according to Friel.
Following the call, Mizuho Securities raised its price target on PerkinElmer's stock to $56 from a previous target of $52, while Leerink upped its target on the stock to $59 from a previous $53 target.
In Friday morning trade on the New York Stock Exchange, shares of PerkinElmer were up more than 7 percent to $54.41.