Life Technologies Second Quarter Earnings Sneak Peek

S&P 500 (NYSE:SPY) component Life Technologies (NASDAQ:LIFE) will unveil its latest earnings on Tuesday, July 31, 2012. Life Technologies is a global biotechnology tools company offering products that include systems, instruments, reagents, and custom services.

Life Technologies Earnings Preview Cheat Sheet

Wall St. Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is for profit of 97 cents per share, a rise of 9% from the company’s actual earnings for the year-ago quarter. The average estimate is the same as three months ago. Between one and three months ago, the average estimate moved up. It has dropped from 98 cents during the last month. Analysts are projecting profit to rise by 7.8% versus last year to $4.

Past Earnings Performance: The company’s quarterly results have come in above estimates for the last three quarters. Last quarter, the company booked net income of 99 cents per share versus a mean estimate of profit of 93 cents per share.

Investing Insights: Is TV the Next Bullish Catalyst for Apple’s Stock?

A Look Back: In the first quarter, profit rose 41.6% to $132.6 million (72 cents a share) from $93.7 million (50 cents a share) the year earlier, exceeding analyst expectations. Revenue rose 4.8% to $939.1 million from $895.9 million.

Stock Price Performance: Between April 30, 2012 and July 25, 2012, the stock price fell $3.60 (-7.8%), from $46.36 to $42.76. The stock price saw one of its best stretches over the last year between July 10, 2012 and July 18, 2012, when shares rose for seven straight days, increasing 6.6% (+$2.71) over that span. It saw one of its worst periods between May 1, 2012 and May 18, 2012 when shares fell for 14 straight days, dropping 12.4% (-$5.78) over that span.

Balance Sheet Analysis: The company’s current ratio of assets to liabilities came in at 1.42 last quarter. The current ratio is an indication of a firm’s liquidity and ability to meet creditor demands and generally, for every dollar the company owes in the short term, it has that figure available in assets that can be converted to cash in the short term.

Key Stats:

On the top line, the company is looking to build on four-straight revenue increases heading into this earnings announcement. Revenue rose 4.1% in the second quarter of the last fiscal year, 7% in the third quarter of the last fiscal year and 8.4% in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year before increasing again in the first quarter.

The company enters this earnings announcement with steady profits recently. Net income has risen year-over-year average of 12.7% for the last four quarters.

Analyst Ratings: There are nine out of 16 analysts surveyed (56.3%) rating Life Technologies a buy.

Wall St. Revenue Expectations: Analysts predict a rise of 0.1% in revenue from the year-earlier quarter to $946 million.

Stocks with improving earnings metrics are worthy of your extra attention. In fact, “E = Earnings Are Increasing Quarter-Over-Quarter” is a core component of our CHEAT SHEET investing framework for this very reason. Don’t waste another minute — click here and get our CHEAT SHEET stock picks now.

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

Don’t Miss These Hot Additional Stories:

Netflix: The GREATEST Head Fake?

Ford Earnings: Revenue TOPS Analyst Estimate, Shares UP>>

Is Cisco Systems Stock a BUY or SELL?