Fullerton-based Beckman Coulter Inc. reported a big jump in fourth-quarter profits that fell just shy of Wall Street expectations and upped its profit forecast for 2009 while being cautious about revenue.
The maker of medical testing equipment and supplies posted a fourth-quarter profit of $77.2 million, up 72% from a year earlier.
Recurring revenue from testing supplies and equipment leases and “disciplined expense management” drove the higher profit, Chief Executive Scott Garrett said.
Still, the profit came in just shy of what analysts were expecting. Their consensus estimate was $77.8 million in fourth-quarter profit.
Sales for the quarter grew a modest 2.8% to $811.3 million, below Wall Street’s expectations of $811.8 million.
Beckman said sales growth came from its dominant clinical diagnostics unit that serves hospitals and medical testing laboratories. It was partially offset by a decline in life sciences revenue from medical researchers and drug developers.
The company offered more of the same in its outlook for 2009: higher profits amid tepid sales growth.
Beckman said it expects to post 2009 profits of $245.7 million to $258.4 million, which would be up 4% to 6% from 2008.
The high end of the outlook topped the $249.5 million average profit estimate that analysts had been looking for.
Beckman said it sees flat sales of $2.4 billion to $3.2 billion, at the lower range of what Wall Street was expecting.
The company said it sees slowing sales of instruments to hospitals, which are being cautious amid investment losses on Wall Street, the credit crunch and the prospect of treating more people without insurance because of job losses.
“However, solid recurring revenue growth is expected to continue,” Garrett said.
Beckman has some 200,000 machines in place at hospitals, laboratories, universities and other sites.
It gets 80% of its $3.1 billion in yearly revenue from recurring sales of chemicals used to run tests on its machines as well as from lease and service payments.
