Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. Earnings: Profit Increase Breaks Streak of Falling Profits

S&P 500 (NYSE:SPY) component Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (NYSE:TMO) reported net income above Wall Street’s expectations for the first quarter. Thermo Fisher Scientific develops, manufactures and sells products to assist the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, academic, government and other research and industrial markets.

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Thermo Fisher Scientific Earnings Cheat Sheet for the First Quarter

Results: Net income for Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. rose to $277.3 million (75 cents per share) vs. $252.2 million (64 cents per share) in the same quarter a year earlier. This marks a rise of 10% from the year-earlier quarter.

Revenue: Rose 13.9% to $3.1 billion from the year-earlier quarter.

Actual vs. Wall St. Expectations: Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. reported adjusted net income of $1.17 per share. By that measure, the company beat the mean estimate of $1.11 per share. It beat the average revenue estimate of $2.98 billion.

Quoting Management: “We carried our momentum of strong financial performance into 2012 by delivering 27% growth in adjusted EPS on solid top-line results,” said Marc N. Casper, president and chief executive officer of Thermo Fisher Scientific. “Our revenue growth was fueled largely by demand for analytical instruments across a broad base of customers, as well as ongoing strength in our biopharma services business. In addition, our investments in emerging markets continued to pay off, highlighted by another excellent quarter in China.

Key Stats:

Revenue has increased for four quarters in a row. Revenue increased 12.7% to $3.13 billion in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year. The figure rose 10.8% in the third quarter of the last fiscal year from the year earlier and climbed 9.4% in the second quarter of the last fiscal year from the year-ago quarter.

The profit increase last quarter ends a two-quarter streak of year-over-year profit decreases. Net income fell 2.9% in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year and in the third quarter of the last fiscal year.

The company has now beaten estimates the last two quarters. In the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year, it topped expectations with net income of $1.18 versus a mean estimate of net income of $1.15 per share.

Looking Forward: Analysts appear increasingly negative about the company’s results for the next quarter. The average estimate for the second quarter has moved down from $1.17 a share to $1.16 over the last ninety days. For the fiscal year, the average estimate has moved up from $4.72 a share to $4.76 over the last ninety days.

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

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