NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Danaher said Thursday that its first quarter sales grew 15 percent year over year.
For the three months ended April 1, the Washington-based conglomerate posted sales of $5.39 billion, up from $4.69 billion in the year-ago quarter, and beating the consensus Wall Street estimate of $5.33 billion.
Overall core sales improved by under 1 percent year over year, with acquisitions adding 16.5 percent to revenue growth and currency effects dampening results by 2 percent, the company said.
The Life Sciences & Diagnostics segment recorded $2.41 billion in sales, compared to $1.70 billion in the first quarter of 2015. On a conference call, Danaher President and CEO Thomas Joyce said that core revenues in the segment grew 2.5 percent year over year while reported revenues grew 42 percent, largely due to the company's recent acquisitions of filtration and purification firm Pall and clinical microbiology business MicroScan.
Within Life Sciences & Diagnostics, sales at Sciex grew in the low single digits, driven by demand in China and the Middle East, Joyce said, adding that the company also saw solid sales growth in certain applied end markets and its service business.
Meanwhile, the diagnostics business saw low single-digit growth year over year, led by "healthy demand in high-growth markets," Joyce said. Beckman Coulter grew in the low single digits, paced by its immunoassay business.
Among Danaher's other segments, Test & Measurement sales slid to $640.3 million from $687.9 million, Environmental sales grew to $855.8 million from $823.2 million, Dental sales were down to $655.9 million from $662.4 million, and Industrial Technologies sales decreased to $823.3 million from $834.5 million.
Danaher posted a profit of $758.4 million, or $1.10 per share, for the quarter, compared to a profit of $569.8 million, or $.79 per share, a year ago. On a non-GAAP basis, EPS was $1.08, beating the consensus Wall Street estimate of $1.03.
The firm increased its R&D spending 7 percent year over year, to $319.8 million from $299.4 million, and grew its SG&A costs 17 percent, to $1.66 billion from $1.41 billion.
Danaher finished the quarter with $664.3 million in cash and cash equivalents.
For the second quarter, the company said that it anticipates adjusted EPS to be in the range of $1.19 to $1.23. Core revenues are anticipated to grow around 2 percent, Joyce said.
He added that Danaher is increasing its full-year 2016 adjusted EPS estimate to a new range of $4.85 to $4.98 from a previous range of $4.80 to $4.95.
In morning trading on Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange, shares of Danaher were up 2 percent to $97.03.