NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – BioMérieux said Thursday that its sales for the first half of 2017 rose 13 percent and its net income surged 18 percent year over year.
For the six months ended June 30, the Marcy L'Etoile, France-based firm reported €1.13 billion ($1.34 billion) in sales compared to €1.00 billion in the same period a year ago. On an organic basis, first half revenues grew 11 percent.
Sales growth was led by a balanced contribution from BioFire FilmArray and other BioMérieux strategic lines, the company said.
Revenues related to clinical applications (including microbiology, immunoassays, molecular biology, and other) grew 15 percent to €917.3 million from €798.2 million in 1H 2016. Industrial application revenues (including BioFire defense, Applied Maths, and R&D-related revenue) grew almost 12 percent to €202.3 million from €181.5 million.
In June the company reported that its second quarter revenues grew 11 percent year over year, and 9 percent organically, driven largely by growth in FilmArray products and microbiology lines. The company did not report net Q2 earnings at that time.
Today BioMérieux said that net income for the first half of 2017 was €101.1 million, or €2.57 per share, compared to €85.7 million, or €2.17 per share, in the first half of 2016.
In light of the organic growth in the first half, BioMérieux revised its full-year 2017 guidance to organic sales growth of between 9 percent and 10 percent. The company had previously guided to between 8 percent and 9 percent.
BioMérieux's R&D expenses in the first half of the year were €148.5 million, up 18 percent from €125.5 million a year ago. Its SG&A expenses were €299.2 million, up 13 percent from €264.8 million a year ago.
In a research note to investors, PiperJaffray's Bill Quirk noted that first half EPS was above expectations, and that while R&D and sales and marketing spending grew due to planned BioFire investments, expenses were below the investment bank's estimates.
Quirk also said that although PiperJaffray believes BioMérieux's fundamentals are solid, it is remaining neutral but increasing its price target to €187 from €166.