Hologic (NSDQ:HOLX) CEO Steven MacMillan offered a glowing review to major stakeholder Carl Icahn, saying that activist investor is "not into our shorts at all."
MacMillan joined Hologic late last year amid something of a tremulous time, with activist investor Icahn nabbing up more than 12.6% of the company and demanding changes.
Hologic agreed to take on 2 new board nominees and made other changes in order to appease Icahn, but MacMillan maintained that the influence has done wonders for the company.
"He has actually been very good," MacMillan told CNBC. "I would say he has a very simple model, which is create shareholders’ value, which frankly is what our other large shareholders looked at and I think a lot of people looked at this company and thought it has tremendous assets, but was being effectively undervalued and I think we have been totally focused."
"I think it’s the sixth sense and I think it’s a belief in at the macro level are you focusing on the right things, but clearly not a micro-manager and not into our shorts at all," he added.
The Massachusetts company managed a swing into the black during its most recent quarter and boosted is year-long outlook despite flat sales growth of just 1%. The company boosted both its sales outlook and earnings guidance for the rest of fiscal 2014, saying it now expects to post adjusted EPS of $1.44 to $1.45, up from prior guidance of $1.37 to $1.40 per share. Fiscal 2014 revenues are forecast to be between $2.50 billion and $2.51 billion, up from $2.46 billion to $2.49 billion.
HOLX shares were down slightly mid-day today, trading at $25.90 as of about 12:40 p.m., a decline of 0.7%. The stock has gained 15.8% since the start of the year.