S&P 500 (NYSE:SPY) component Life Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ:LIFE) will unveil its latest earnings on Tuesday, February 7, 2012. Life Technologies is a global biotechnology tools company offering products that include systems, instruments, reagents, and custom services.

Life Technologies Corporation Earnings Preview Cheat Sheet

Wall St. Earnings Expectations: The average estimate of analysts is for net income of $1.03 per share, a rise of 14.4% from the company’s actual earnings for the same quarter a year ago. During the past three months, the average estimate has moved down from $1.04. Between one and three months ago, the average estimate was unchanged. It has since dropped over the last month. Analysts are projecting profit to rise by 4.2% versus last year to $3.70.

Last quarter, the company came in at profit of 94 cents per share against a mean estimate of net income of 88 cents per share, beating estimates after missing them in the previous quarter. In the second quarter, it missed forecasts by 5 cents.

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Wall St. Revenue Expectations: Analysts are projecting a rise of 3.6% in revenue from the year-earlier quarter to $967.7 million.

Analyst Ratings: Analysts are bullish on this stock with 12 analysts rating it as a buy, none rating it as a sell and six rating it as a hold.

A Look Back: In the third quarter, profit fell 8.8% to $96.3 million (52 cents a share) from $105.5 million (56 cents a share) the year earlier, but exceeded analyst expectations. Revenue rose 7% to $928.2 million from $867.1 million.

Key Stats:

Revenue has risen the past four quarters. Revenue rose 4.1% in the second quarter from the year earlier, climbed 1.2% in the first quarter from the year-ago quarter and 7% in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year.

The company has seen net income fall in each of the last two quarters. Net income dropped 13.7% in the second quarter.

Stock Price Performance: During December 2, 2011 to February 1, 2012, the stock price had risen $10.02 (25.7%) from $38.97 to $48.99. The stock price saw one of its best stretches over the last year between January 20, 2012 and January 26, 2012 when shares rose for five-straight days, rising 8.2% (+$3.74) over that span. It saw one of its worst periods between July 22, 2011 and August 8, 2011 when shares fell for 12-straight days, falling 25.4% (-$13.09) over that span.

(Company fundamentals by Xignite Financials. Earnings estimates provided by Zacks)

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To contact the reporter on this story: Derek Hoffman at staff.writers@wallstcheatsheet.com

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Damien Hoffman at editors@wallstcheatsheet.com

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