Q1 Insights:
Thermo Fisher Scientific, the world’s largest provider of scientific instruments and laboratory and diagnostic machines and materials, reported a 9% decline in first-quarter revenue and a 41% drop in net income from a year earlier. Its share price fell 2.7%, or $14.98, to $533.40 in morning trading on Wednesday.
“We delivered another quarter of very strong financial performance, driven by our proven growth strategy and powered by our [practical process improvement] business system,” Marc Casper, the firm’s chairman and CEO, said in a statement accompanying the earnings numbers. “The team executed very well to navigate a dynamic macroenvironment, enable our customers’ success, and drive share gain.”
Goldman Sachs analysts wrote in a note Wednesday morning that first-quarter revenue was in line with the company’s own estimate of $10.7 billion.
"Expectations were more modest for 1Q than has been the case during '21-22," TD Cowen analyst Dan Brennan wrote in a note on Wednesday. "Following the strong recovery out of COVID (where TMO often posted notable upside to consensus), TMO is facing tougher comps after a strong 2 years of growth.”
Revenue across business segments
Revenue and profits were down across most of the company’s business segments, with Life Sciences Solutions revenue down 38% to $2.6 billion, and Specialty Diagnostics down 25% to $1.1 billion. Revenue at the Analytical Instruments division rose 14% to $1.7 billion, and revenue at its largest business, Laboratory Products and Biopharma Services, rose 6% to $5.67 billion over the first quarter of last year.
New Initiatives
Thermo Fisher launched a range of high-impact, innovative new products in the quarter, the company said in a statement, including the Thermo Scientific iCAP RQ Plus ICP-MS Analyzer to simplify analysis of trace elements, including identification of heavy metals in water and soil as well as toxic elements in food and beverages. Other new products included the Applied Biosystems QuantStudio Absolute Q AutoRun dPCR, for cell and gene therapy and cancer research; and the Invitrogen DynaGreen, microplastic-free magnetic beads for protein purification, to reduce the environmental impact of life science research.
The company also said it has joined with the University of California, San Francisco, to open a new cell therapy cGMP manufacturing and collaboration center to accelerate development of breakthrough therapies, and has secured agreements to power all of its existing U.S. sites with 100% renewable energy by 2026.
Share buyback
Thermo Fisher repurchased $3 billion of stock, increasing its dividend by 17%, and completed the acquisition of The Binding Site, a provider of specialist diagnostic products.
