NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Sigma-Aldrich today reported a 4 percent increase in its third quarter revenues, as the company beat the consensus Wall Street estimate on the top line but missed on the bottom line.
For the three months ended Sept. 30, Sigma-Aldrich took in $664 million in revenues, up from $639 a year ago, and edging out the average analyst estimate of $661.3 million.
By business units, Research had revenues of $341 million, as organic sales grew 3 percent, while the Applied business posted revenues of $154 million with organic growth of 4 percent. The SAFC Commercial business unit saw organic sales growth of 8 percent and total sales of $169 million.
Within SAFC, both the Life Science Products and Life Science Services segments saw organic sales growth in the double digits, while the Hitech segment declined in the high-single digits, the company said.
Sigma-Aldrich had a profit of $119 million, or $.98 per share, in the quarter, compared to a profit of $112 million, or $.92 per share, a year ago. Wall Street expected EPS of $.99.
"Our overall organic sales growth in the quarter was the best performance in over two years," Sigma-Aldrich President and CEO Rakesh Sachdev said in a statement. "All of our business units and geographies contributed to growth in the quarter, despite uncertainties in the US federal funding environment. We maintained solid profitability and continued to generate strong free cash flow in the quarter."
The firm's R&D spending decreased 6 percent in the quarter to $16 million from $17 million in Q3 2012, while SG&A costs ticked up 2 percent to $150 million from $147 million. The company reported restructuring and other charges of $10 million, compared to $4 million a year ago.
Sigma-Aldrich said it repurchased 700,000 shares of its stock for $59 million in the third quarter, and finished Q3 with $688 million in cash and cash equivalents.
For full-year 2013, Sigma-Aldrich maintained its guidance of organic sales growth in the low- to mid-single-digit range. It narrowed its EPS guidance to a range of $4.08 to $4.15, from an earlier range of $4.05 to $4.15. The lower end was raised due to a favorable tax benefit in the third quarter, the firm said.
The new guidance implies a fourth quarter adjusted EPS range of $.97 to $1.04, it added.
In early Tuesday trade on the Nasdaq, shares of Sigma-Aldrich were up 2 percent at $85.19.