Friday, October 24, 2008

PerkinElmer reports Q3 profit climb, plans stock buyback

By Mass High Tech Staff

Life sciences company PerkinElmer Inc. saw a large enough jump in its revenue for the third quarter of the year that it decided to buy back up to 10 million shares of its own common stock.

The board of directors of Waltham-based PerkinElmer approved the buyback plan, with any purchases to be made through open market deals or privately negotiated transactions, subject to market conditions and trading restrictions.

For the third quarter which ended Sept. 28, PerkinElmer (NYSE: PKI) reported revenue of $505.1 million, which was a 16 percent bump from the third quarter of 2007. The company’s profit also jumped, from $30.7 million in Q3 2007 to $51.9 million in this latest third quarter. That gave PerkinElmer earnings per share of 37 cents, in line with the company’s prior guidance of 36 cents to 37 cents, and well above Q3 2007 earnings of 26 cents per share.
In July, PerkinElmer formed the ViaCord Research Institute, focusing on using umbilical cord blood-derived stem cells for cord blood technologies, emerging stem cell therapies, genetic screening, product development and related transplants. PerkinElmer acquired its cord blood business through its $300 million buyout of Cambridge-based ViaCell Inc. in October 2007.

The institute is led by Morey Kraus, chief technology officer of the ViaCord business, and is advised by a board of researchers and ViaCord scientists.

PerkinElmer, which employs 9,100 workers worldwide, reported 2007 net income of $131.7 million on revenue of $1.8 billion.