NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Thermo Fisher Scientific today reported an 11 percent increase in first quarter revenues, resulting from growth in all of its business segments.
In a conference call to discuss the company's earnings, President and CEO Marc Casper said that Thermo Fisher saw "strong financial performance on both the top and bottom line" and that the company is "well positioned to deliver another excellent year."
For the three months ended April 1, the company reported $4.77 billion in revenue, up from $4.29 billion in Q1 of 2016, and beating the average analyst estimate of $4.68 billion. Organic revenue grew 4 percent, acquisitions increased revenue by 8 percent, and currency effects decreased it by 1 percent.
Revenues from the life sciences solutions segment, which includes Affymetrix, grew 12 percent to $1.36 billion, from $1.22 billion in the first quarter of 2016. Analytical instruments revenues, which include electron microscopy maker FEI, increased 39 percent to $1.05 billion, from $759 million during last year's first quarter. Specialty diagnostics revenues rose 1 percent to $866.4 million from $854.6 million in the first quarter of 2016. Laboratory products and services revenues grew 3 percent to $1.70 billion from $1.65 billion in the prior year period.
Thermo Fisher's Q1 net income rose to $551.4 million, or $1.40 per share, from $402.2 million, or $1.01 per share, a year ago. The increase was partly due to a one-time tax benefit. On an adjusted basis, the company reported EPS of $2.08, beating the average analyst estimate of $2.02.
The company's R&D spending for the quarter rose 22 percent to $215.4 million from $176.5 million a year ago. Its SG&A spending increased 10 percent to $1.09 billion from $991.9 million last year.
Over the quarter, the company continued to see strong growth of its business in Asia-Pacific, particularly in China, India, and South Korea, and it opened a customer demonstration center for electron microscopy structural biology applications at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
The firm launched several new products in Q1, including the iCAP triple-quadrupole mass spectrometry system and the microarray-based CarrierScan Assay for detecting carriers of inherited disease.
Thermo Fisher also completed two acquisitions during the quarter. It acquired Core Informatics, which provides cloud-based informatics solutions, and Finesse Solutions, which offers measurement and control solutions for bioproduction.
In addition, the company repurchased $500 million of its stock during the quarter.
Thermo Fisher finished the first quarter with $713.3 million in cash and cash equivalents.
As a result of its strong first quarter performance, the company increased its revenue and EPS guidance for 2017. It now expects revenues of $19.51 billion to $19.71 billion for the year, which would represent 7 percent to 8 percent growth over 2016, compared to its previous revenue guidance of $19.38 billion to $19.62 billion. Adjusted EPS is now expected to be $9.12 to $9.28 compared to the previous guidance of $9.06 to $9.24.
In morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange, shares of Thermo Fisher were up about 4 percent, trading at around $165.