NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Qiagen reported after the close of the market Monday that its second-quarter revenues increased 10 percent and its profit rose 33 percent, beating analysts' consensus estimates for both the top and bottom lines.
The molecular diagnostics and life sciences products firm brought in total revenues of $240.2 million compared to $217.9 million for the second quarter of 2008. Analysts, on average, had expected revenues of $232 million.
The firm's consumables sales grew 5 percent, or 12 percent excluding negative currency effects, and instrument sales increased 66 percent, or 83 percent in constant currency. Qiagen also noted that sales to molecular diagnostic customers provided the highest sales growth in the quarter and accounted for around 48 percent of its total sales.
"The markets we serve demonstrated robust demand and solid economic trends," Qiagen CEO Peer Schatz said in a statement. "Growth of our sales to customers in molecular diagnostics was fueled by strong growth in sales of our screening products (primarily HPV), personalized medicine diagnostics (including our KRAS testing solutions) and infectious disease tests (including our solutions for the surveillance of H1N1 infections)."
Qiagen's net income for the quarter was $30.9 million, or $.15 per share, versus $23.3 million, or $.11 per share, for Q2 2008. On an adjusted basis, the firm's net income grew to $48.2 million, or $.24 per share, from $40.4 million, or $.20 per share, beating analysts' consensus estimate for the most recent quarter of $.21 per share.
Qiagen finished the quarter with $390.3 million in cash and cash equivalents.
Following the second-quarter results, the company increased the low end of its range for EPS and revenue guidance for full-year 2009. Qiagen now expects revenues to be between $930 million and $970 million, up from between $920 million and $970 million. It expects adjusted EPS of between $0.90 and $0.94, up from its previous guidance of $0.88 to $0.94.
In a research note published last night, Thomas Weisel Partners analyst Peter Lawson wrote, "Qiagen's business looks to be among the more resilient in the life science space, which we attribute to its molecular diagnostics exposure (approximately 48 percent of revenues), consumables, and high ROI's for their instrumentation."
He raised his price target on Qiagen's stock to $22 from his previous target of $20.
In early Tuesday trade on the Nasdaq, Qiagen's shares were up 7 percent at $20.26.