>>SAN DIEGO, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Invitrogen Corp. (NasdaqNM:IVGN - news), a provider of biotech research products, reported on Thursday a narrower fourth-quarter loss, but said first-quarter revenue and earnings will fall short due to currency exchange rates and weakness in some of its business segments.
San Diego-based Invitrogen posted a net loss of $35.6 million, or 67 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $51.7 million, or $1.03 cents a share, for the year-earlier period.
Excluding the cost of writing off assets and merger costs, the company said it had a pro-forma profit of $20.5 million, or 38 cents a share, versus a pro-forma profit of $18.8 million, or 35 cents per share.
On that basis, analysts on average expected a profit of 38 cents a share. Their estimates ranged from 38 cents to 40 cents, according to research firm Thomson Financial/First Call.
Revenues for the quarter, boosted by strong sales of molecular biology and cell culture research products, rose to $153.3 million from $143.2 million in the year-earlier period. Fourth-quarter 2000 revenues included results from Life Technologies, acquired in September 2000.
During a conference call, Chief Financial Officer James Glynn said Invitrogen now expects first-quarter pro forma earnings per share of 42 cents to 44 cents on revenue of $156 million to $158 million. The current First Call estimate projects the company will earn 48 cents per share.
He cited slower-than-expected sales growth for the company's U.S. molecular biology products, weaker-than-expected exchange rates for the yen and the euro and problems with the company's oglionucleotides business for the shortfall.
Oglionucleiotides are short sequences of DNA used by researchers and drug developers. Last year, Invitrogen tried to meet fast-growing demand for the product, but ended up failing to supply some customers and lost their business, explained Paul Goodson, a spokesman for Invitrogen. In addition, some large customers exited the business, he said.
Invitrogen's shares, which fell $4.35, or nearly 9 percent, to close at $45.64 on Nasdaq, were trading sharply lower at $41.25 after hours on Instinet.<<
This puts BioRad firmly in the lead as highest priced Trickle stock, FWIW.
Cheers, Tuck |
