NEW YORK – PerkinElmer said after the close of the market on Tuesday that its first quarter revenues more than doubled year over year as revenues from its Diagnostics segment spiked sharply.
For the three months ended April 4, the Waltham, Massachusetts-based firm posted $1.31 billion in total revenues, up from $652.4 million in Q1 2021. It beat the consensus Wall Street estimate of $1.21 billion.
The Diagnostics segment's revenues were up 236 percent to $853.1 million from $254.0, while the Discovery & Analytical Solutions segment recorded $454.6 million in revenues, up 14 percent from $398.4 million a year ago.
On a conference call following the release of the financial results, PerkinElmer CFO Jamey Mock said that COVID-19-related product and service revenues totaled $550 million in Q1 2021 "propelled primarily by our PCR tests and RNA extraction solutions, as well as our turnkey lab-in-lab testing solutions in the state of California and the United Kingdom."
Prahlad Singh, PerkinElmer's president and CEO, said on the call that the firm anticipates surveillance testing for COVID-19 will remain important "for the foreseeable future" with a focus on testing for asymptomatic patients as global economies continue to open.
In other parts of the Diagnostics segment, Mock noted strength in the immunodiagnostics business, as well as the applied genomics business, and the reproductive health franchise, which returned to profitability for the first time since Q4 2019.
The immunodiagnostics franchise was up 420 percent year over year with the non-COVID business growing 20 percent, paced by Euroimmun and Tulip Diagnostics.
The applied genomics business grew 330 percent year over year, and reproductive health revenues was up in the high single digits, driven by growth in the clinical immunoassay business and next-generation sequencing testing, Mock said.
In March, PerkinElmer completed its $591 million acquisition of Oxford Immunotec, and according to Singh, "visibility on both revenue and cost synergy opportunities continues to improve."
Meantime, growth in the DAS segment was broad-based, led by life sciences, food, and the applied markets, Mock said. The life science end market saw low-single digit growth organically, while pharma/biotech was up also in the low-single digits, and discovery and informatics was up in the mid-teens and high-single digits, respectively.
The enterprise business declined in the high-single digits organically, while the academic/government end market retreated in the low-single digits. The food end market improved in the high single digits, and applied markets was up in the low double digits.
For the recently completed quarter, the company posted a profit of $379.3 million, or $3.37 per share, up from a profit of $33.7 million, or $.30 per share, a year ago. Adjusted EPS for Q1 2021 was $3.72 and beat the consensus Wall Street estimate of $3.07 per share.
The firm spent $60.2 million on R&D in the recently completed quarter compared to $48.9 million a year ago, a 23 percent increase. Its SG&A costs rose 21 percent to $251.4 million from $208.6 million.
PerkinElmer exited the quarter with $988.2 million in cash and cash equivalents.
The company initiated guidance for the second quarter and said it expects GAAP revenues to be about $1.11 billion. GAAP EPS from continuing operations is forecast at $1.90, while non-GAAP EPS is expected to be $2.35.
For full-year 2021, PerkinElmer expects GAAP revenues of $4.37 billion. GAAP EPS from continuing operations is anticipated to be $7.77, while non-GAAP EPS is expected to be $9.40. Included in the revenue guidance is a projection of a 5 percent year-over-year increase in COVID-19-related revenues, Mock said on the call.
In early morning trade on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, shares of PerkinElmer were up 5 percent to $134.53.