Hologic shares plunge as 2Q profit disappoints Wall Street
NEW YORK—Shares of medical technology company Hologic Inc. plunged Thursday after the company's fiscal 2008 second-quarter profit disappointed Wall Street.
The stock fell $5.44, or 18.6 percent, to close at $23.75. Shares reached their lowest point in more than a year, falling to $21.25 earlier in the session.
For the period ended March 29, the company earned $56 million, or 22 cents per share, compared with profit of $21.6 million, or 20 cents per share, during the same period a year prior. Hologic had about 150 million additional shares of common stock outstanding during the most recent quarter.
Excluding buyout charges, the company earned 29 cents per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected profit of 28 cents per share.
Revenue surged to $431 million from $181.1 million. The revenue boost came mainly from $189.2 million in products gained through the buyout of Cytyc Corp. last year.
Analysts expected revenue of $418.1 million.
The company's digital mammography system Selenia helped boost sales in the company's breast health unit by 41 percent to $223.3 million. Meanwhile, diagnostic product revenue accounted for $124.4 million with surgical sales reaching $55.2 million. Sales from the skeletal health unit accounted for $28.1 million.
For the six months ended March 29, the company lost $302.6 million, or $1.28 per share, compared with profit of $37.7 million, or 35 cents per share, during the same period a year prior. Revenue jumped to $802.5 million from $344.3 million.
Goldman Sachs analyst Charles Chon reaffirmed "Neutral" rating on the stock, calling the results mixed, with strong Selenia placements offset by lower-than-expected earnings quality.
"As expected, the incremental number of systems added to the backlog during the quarter was lower than the number of systems installed," he said in a note to investors. "While this falls in-line with management's focus to drive down the backlog, we believe it has been a source of concern for some investors, as it may reduce visibility for future system placements."
