Haemonetics Corp. (NYSE:HAE) said for the second straight quarter that it will not meet previous sales estimates for 2011.
The Braintree, Mass.-based blood management firm narrowed its top-line growth estimate to 6 percent to 7 percent, down from the 6 percent to 9 percent (itself a downgrade from the 9 percent to 12 percent growth forecast Haemonetics issued at the start of its fiscal year).
The readjustment came with the announcement of an otherwise strong third quarter for the company.
Haemonetics said overall sales were $176.8 million for three months ended Jan. 1, a 7 percent uptick from $165.2 million during the same period last year. Net income for the third quarter was $19.7 million, or 77 cents per diluted share, up 8 percent from $18.3 million, or 71 cents diluted EPS, during Q3 2010.
The primary culprit for the lowered guidance was Haemonetics’ once-stellar plasma disposables business, which posted a modest 1.5 percent increase to $59.8 million during the quarter but is down 3 percent for the year thus far.
CEO Brian Concannon told analysts on a conference call that the plasma disposables business was hit by a 20 percent decline in sales to Japanese blood banks. Still, he was upbeat about the overall health of the company’s bread-and-butter product line, noting that HAE has re-signed two of its largest plasma customers and now has 95 percent of its largest contracts signed through 2014.
“We turned the corner on plasma,” Concannon said, noting that the company saw weekly shipments of plasma disposables jump 17 percent since the fourth quarter of 2010, which he called the low point of the downturn. “We have put behind one of the biggest overhangs facing our business.”
Concannon admitted that Haemonetics is feeling the down economy, but said that he was encouraged by the diversity and performance of new products, evincing particular bullishness on the results of the company’s 2010 acquisition of GlobalMed Technologies Inc. Global Med’s product line, which includes software products and services to donor centers and hospital transfusion services, significantly helped Haemonetics’ growing software solutions business, which brought in $16.6 million in sales during the third quarter. That’s a 100 percent increase from $8.2 million for the same period last year; the division is up 90 percent for the year to date.
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