NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Danaher said today that its revenues in the fourth quarter rose 6 percent year over year with its Life Sciences & Diagnostics segment leading the way.
For the three months ended Dec. 31, 2013, the company posted revenues of $5.27 billion, up from $4.98 billion in Q4 2012, and beating the consensus Wall Street estimate of $5.20 billion.
Danaher's profit for the quarter was up to $789.3 million, or $1.11 per share, from $630.4 million, or $0.89 per share, in Q4 2012, besting analyst estimates of $0.95 per share.
By segment, Life Sciences & Diagnostics notched $1.94 billion in revenues, up 5 percent from $1.84 billion a year ago.
On a conference call following release of the results, Danaher President and CEO Lawrence Culp said the company believed it had gained market share in several of its divisions, including its AB Sciex mass spectrometry business.
AB Sciex core revenues grew at low single-digits in the quarter, "with strength in proteomics and applied markets," Culp said.
The company's diagnostic's business, meanwhile, grew at mid-single digits, with Beckman Coulter's core diagnostic sales growing at a low single-digit rate.
Beckman showed particular strength in immunoassays and clinical automation, Culp said, with sales of the latter growing in the double-digits. Beckman's China revenues grew at a roughly 20 percent rate, "due to a combination of our expanding installed base and continued government investment in healthcare infrastructure," he added.
Culp also said that the company had begun to "see the impact" of the September US Food and Drug Administration clearance of Beckman's troponin assay, noting that "both our [customer] retention and competitive win rate have improved" since then.
The company's Test and Measurement segment saw revenues increase 4 percent to $898.3 million from $863.7 million, and the Environmental segment rose 10 percent to $936.1 million from $850.6 million. The firm's Dental segment increased sales 3 percent to $590.2 million from $570.5 million, and the Industrial Technologies segment rose 6 percent to $902.5 million from $852.7 million.
R&D spending was up 13 percent to $332.2 million from $294.6 million a year ago. SG&A costs increased 6 percent to $1.49 billion from $1.41 billion.
For full-year 2013, revenues totaled $19.12 billion, a 5 percent increase from $18.26 billion from 2012. The company beat the consensus Wall Street revenue estimate of $19.06 billion.
Net earnings for full-year 2013 increased to $2.70 billion, or $3.80 per share, from $2.39 billion, or $3.23 per share in 2012. This beat Wall Street estimates of $3.41 per share.
The Life Sciences and Diagnostics segment grew 6 percent to $6.86 billion from $6.49 billion.
Among Danaher's four other segments, Test and Measurement revenues were up 1 percent to $3.42 billion million from $3.38 billion, while Environmental was up 8 percent to $3.32 billion from $3.06 billion. Dental was up 3 percent to $2.09 billion from $2.02 billion, and Industrial Technologies increased 4 percent to $3.43 billion from $3.31 billion.
Danaher increased its R&D spending during the year 10 percent to $1.25 billion from $1.14 billion in 2012. Its SG&A expenses were up 5 percent to $5.43 billion from $5.18 billion a year ago.
The company ended the year with $3.12 billion in cash and cash equivalents.
Danaher said that it expects earnings per share for Q1 2014 to be in the range of $0.76 to $0.80. It reaffirmed its full year 2014 guidance of $3.60 to $3.75 per share with expected core revenue growth of 2 percent to and 4 percent.
In morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday, shares of Danaher were up a fraction of 1 percent at $74.62.