NEW YORK – PerkinElmer reported after the close of the market on Monday that its revenues in the fourth quarter of 2019 rose almost 7 percent year over year.
For the three months ended Dec. 29, 2019, the Waltham, Massachusetts-based company said total revenues increased to $805.5 million compared to $756.3 million a year ago. It beat analysts' average estimate of $800.1 million.
The Diagnostics segment's revenues grew 4 percent year over year to $309 million from $296.5 million in Q4 2018, while revenues in the Discovery & Analytical Solutions segment improved 8 percent year over year to $496.5 million from $459.9 million.
On a conference call following the release of the financial results, PerkinElmer's new CEO Prahlad Singh highlighted the firm's Vanadis NIPT system, saying the test is one "for every woman due to its high precision and low no-call rate." Customer feedback on the system remains positive, he added.
At the end of 2019, there were a total of 28 Vanadis placements, slightly short of the company's previously stated goal of 30 placements. By the end of 2020, the plan is to have between 50 and 55 placements of the system in total, implying between 22 and 27 placements during the year, said Singh. Â
He also cited the US Food and Drug Administration marketing authorization of PerkinElmer's GSP Neonatal Creative Kinase-MM kits for use in screening newborns for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. New York State is using the kit as part of the Project Muscular Dystrophy's Newborn Screening Pilot of Duchenne Muscular Dystophy, and the firm and the NYS Department of Health are collaborating on a two-year project to screen 100,000 infants.
PerkinElmer CFO Jamey Mock added on the call that during Q4 immunodiagnostics grew in the low double digits, led by Euroimmun, which grew in the mid-teens.
The applied genomics business remained soft, declining in the high-single digits during the recently completed quarter, with particular softness in automated workstation and robotics product segments more than offsetting momentum in the firm's NGS and nucleic acid extraction reagents business, Mock said.
The genomics testing business remains on track to complete the Branford, Connecticut to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania consolidation by the end of the first quarter, he added.
Over the past few weeks, the novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV has left health officials in China and elsewhere scrambling. Several firms have said they are in the process of developing tests for the virus, and Singh said that PerkinElmer, too, is developing a PCR- and antibody-based assay.
PCR-based assays are generally the frontline technology during an outbreak, and the firm is making strides in its efforts, but it needs to take its assays through the regulatory process. To that end, the National Medical Products Association in China is working with PerkinElmer and with others, Singh said.
In Q4, PerkinElmer's R&D spending retreated more than 8 percent to $47.6 million from $52.0 million a year ago, while its SG&A costs grew almost 1 percent year over year to $210.7 million from $210.5 million.
The company posted net income of $64.5 million, or $.58 per share, in the recently completed quarter compared to net income of $71.3 million, or $.64 per share, a year ago. On an adjusted basis, PerkinElmer had EPS of $1.35 and beat the consensus Wall Street estimate of $1.33.
For full-year 2019, the company recorded $2.88 billion in revenues, up 4 percent from $2.78 billion in 2018. It matched the consensus Wall Street estimate.
Diagnostic segment revenues rose 5 percent year over year to $1.14 billion from $1.08 billion, while Discovery & Analytical Solutions revenues increased 3 percent to $1.75 billion from $1.69 billion.
PerkinElmer spent $189.3 million on R&D in 2019, down more than 2 percent year over year from $194.0 million in 2018. Its SG&A costs grew a fraction of 1 percent to $815.3 million from $811.9 million.
The company's restructuring costs more than doubled to $29.4 million from $11.1 million a year ago.
Its net income for 2019 contracted to $227.6 million, or $2.04 per share, compared to $237.9 million, or $2.13 per share, in 2018. Its adjusted EPS for 2019 was $4.10 and beat the consensus Wall Street estimate of $4.07.
PerkinElmer finished 2019 with $191.9 million in cash and cash equivalents.
For Q1 2020, it forecasts revenues of $700 million. EPS from continuing operations is estimated to be $.33, while adjusted EPS from continuing operations is expected to be $.70, the company said.
For full-year 2020, the company is forecasting revenues of $3.05 billion to $3.09 billion. EPS from continuing operations is expected to be in the range of $2.89 to $2.99, while adjusted EPS is anticipated to be in the range of $4.50 to $4.60.