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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024
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Net Income Jumps at Gen-Probe

San Diego diagnostics company Gen-Probe reported a 14 percent jump in quarterly net income Feb. 18, led by strong sales of its test kits for influenza and sexually transmitted diseases.

For the three months ended Dec. 31, the company reported a net income of $24 million on revenues of $138.9 million. Gen-Probe saw the biggest growth in its clinical diagnostics unit, which grew 34 percent in the fourth quarter to $77.6 million. That division makes products that include tests for flu, chlamydia and gonorrhea.

Its blood screening division also grew, by 11 percent, to $53.4 million during the quarter. Gen-Probe attributed most of the growth to higher sales of its TIGRIS instrument, used for screening donated blood, to Novartis.

For 2010, Gen-Probe projected sales of $540 million to $565 million and earnings of $1.90 to $2.05 a share.

“We expect Gen-Probe’s women’s health franchise to drive growth in 2010+ despite the potential for new competitors,” Leerink Swan analyst Isaac Ro told investors in a Feb. 19 report. He identified the competitors as Qiagen, a German-based maker of laboratory equipment and HPV tests, and Cepheid, a Sunnyvale-based developer of high-throughput PCR machines and neonatal tests, among other things.

Also, Gen-Probe said it will buy back up to $100 million in common stock over the next year. Roughly 5 percent of the company’s shares were outstanding in the fourth quarter. Gen-Probe ended the quarter with $501.1 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities.

Gen-Probe trades on the Nasdaq as GPRO. Shares closed Feb. 19 at $43.54. Over 52 weeks the share price has ranged from $35.70 to $49.29.

— Heather Chambers

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