Illumina Profits Up 9% - Drug Discovery and Development

SAN DIEGO (AP) – Genetic analysis instrument company Illumina Inc. said its profit grew 9% in the first quarter as the year-ago quarter was weighted down by a big charge.

Illumina said its profit rose to $26.2 million, or 20 cents per share, from $24.1 million, or 16 cents per share. Excluding one-time costs, Illumina said it earned 36 cents per share in the most recent quarter, up a penny from last year. Revenue declined 3%, to $272.8 million from $282.5 million.

Analysts expected the company to report a smaller profit of 32 cents per share on revenue of $265.7 million, according to FactSet.

Illumina said its product revenue fell 4% to $255.6 million. Service and other revenue increased to $17.1 million from $15.8 million. But the company also reported a decrease in expenses. A year ago the company took a $27.2 million loss on the extinguishment of debt. Illumina also said its cost of products decreased compared to the first quarter of 2011.

The company said it is backing in 2012 profit and revenue outlook, as its backlog of orders is growing and business is generally performing as expected. However Illumina said some uncertainty exists in academic and research funding in the second half of the year.

In February, Illumina said it would earn $1.40 to $1.50 per share in 2012, and said revenue will rise to a range of $1.1 billion to $1.18 billion.

Analysts expect Illumina to report an annual profit of $1.47 per share on $1.13 billion in revenue on average.

Illumina also said its board last week approved the repurchase of up to $250 million in stock.

Illumina recently fended off a takeover bid from Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG. Roche went public with an offer to buy Illumina for $5.7 billion in January and later raised its offer to $6.5 billion, or $51 per share, and it proposed its own slate of directors to Illumina’s board of directors. Illumina said both offers were too low, and Roche said that it was withdrawing its offer because Illumina shareholders were going to reject its nominees.

Date: April 23, 2012
Source: Associated Press