Investors on Wall Street backed off of their initial enthusiasm for Haemonetics (NYSE:HAE) today, after the blood management company beat The Street’s 3rd-quarter profit expectations and re-affirmed its guidance for the year.
HAE shares hit $68.01 today after the company reported profits of $18.3 million, or 72 cents per share, on sales of $191.2 million for the 3 months ended Dec. 31, 2011. Adjusted for 1-time items, earnings were 86 cents per share, well above analysts’ expectations of 79 cents EPS.
Shares fell back from their high-water mark to trade at $66.05, down 0.3% on the day, as of about 12:15 p.m. today.
"This marks the third quarter of solid revenue performance with plasma growth continuing and blood management solutions gaining traction as blood collectors and hospitals continue to focus increased efforts to reduce costs under the mounting pressures of healthcare reform. Blood center disposables grew once again and hospital disposables improved quarter over quarter as we recover from the OrthoPAT recall and resolve our quality issues. We expect hospital disposables to return to growth in Q4," CEO Brian Concannon said in prepared remarks.
Haemonetics said it expects fiscal 2012 slaes to grow by about 6% to 7%, with earnings per share of between $3 and $3.10.