Blood-testing equipments maker Immucor Inc. (BLUD) said Wednesday after the markets closed that its second quarter profit rose 14% from last year, as sales increased benefiting from both price and volume contribution. The company's quarterly earnings per share also beat analysts' estimate as did its quarterly sales. At the same time, the company reiterated its revenue and earnings guidance for the fiscal year 2010.
The Norcross, Georgia-based company reported net income for the second quarter of $19.7 million or $0.28 per share, compared to $17.3 million or $0.24 per share for the year-ago quarter.
The latest quarter included the impact from the Quality Process Improvement Project of $0.02 per share.
On average, 9 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $0.26 per share for the second quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
Gross margin for the quarter fell 70.4% from 73.3% in the prior year quarter, negatively impacted by the costs related to the company's Quality Process Improvement Project, which is aimed at establishing a world-class quality system while simultaneously addressing the deficiencies noted by the FDA in its June administrative action.
The company said it continues to expect its project remediation efforts to be completed by the end of its third quarter of its current fiscal year.
Net sales for the second quarter rose 13% to $82.57 million from $73.02 million in the same quarter last year. Eight analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $79.06 million for the second quarter.
Second quarter revenue was favorably impacted by about $1.9 million due to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates as compared to a year ago, the company noted.
For the second quarter, traditional reagents revenue increased 9% year-over-year to $51.4 million, while capture reagents revenue rose 21% to $20.0 million and instruments revenue grew 16% to $10.0 million.
"We continue to deliver strong financial results due to the success of our automation strategy and the needs-based aspect of our business," stated Dr. Gioacchino De Chirico, Immucor's President and Chief Executive Officer. "The recurring nature of our reagents business provides a solid base for our financial results."
Of the cumulative orders since the instruments' launch, about 498 Echo orders and 634 Galileo orders were generating reagent revenue at their expected annualized run rate at the end of the second quarter, an increase of 68 Echo instruments and 20 Galileo instruments in the quarter.
During the second quarter, Immucor repurchased about 300,000 shares of its common stock for about $5.5 million. In August, the company announced an increase of 2 million shares to its stock repurchase program. The company had about 2.2 million shares of authorization remaining for repurchase at the end of second quarter.
For the first six months of its fiscal year, the company reported net income of $41.0 million or $0.58 per share, compared to $37.3 million or $0.52 per share for the same period last year.
Net sales for the first-half increased 13% to $165.64 million from $146.20 million in the prior year period.
For the fiscal year 2010, the company continues to expect sales of $322 million to $332 million and earnings of $1.10 to $1.17 per share, which includes a $0.05 to $0.06 per share impact related to the Quality Process Improvement Project.
The company said it now expects expenses related to the Quality Process Improvement Project in fiscal 2010 to be in the range of $6.0 million to $7.0 million, compared with previous expectations of $4.0 million to $4.5 million.
The company's fiscal 2010 guidance also includes a full year of BioArray expenses. BioArray was acquired in August 2008.
Analysts currently expect the company to earn $1.15 per share on revenue of $329.99 million for the fiscal year 2010.
Gross margins for fiscal 2010 is still expected to be in the range of 70.0% to 71.5%.
The company said it now expects to generate Echo orders in fiscal 2010 toward the low end of its guidance range of 280 to 320 orders. The company expects fiscal 2010 Galileo orders, which include the current Galileo instrument as well as the Neo, to be toward the high end of its guidance range of 50 to 70 orders.
Immucor said it continues to expect to launch its next generation high volume instrument, the Galileo Neo, in the first calendar quarter of 2010.
Immucor shares, which have traded in a range of $11.24 to $29.20 over the past year, closed Wednesday's regular trading session at $20.64, up 31 cents or 1.52%.
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