PerkinElmer Inc. tightened its belt a notch or two, cutting its total costs by 4.6 percent after posting sales and earnings slumps during the first quarter.
The Waltham electronic devices maker posted sales of $431.6 million for the three months ended April 5, down 5.9 percent compared with $458.7 million during the same period last year.
Net income plunged 47.6 percent to $10.6 million, compared with $20.1 million during the first quarter of 2008.
The results capped a week of changes in PerkinElmer’s executive suite, where president and CEO Robert Friel was named chairman and Frank “Andy” Wilson, a former Danaher Corp. executive, was named CFO.
PerkinElmer ended the quarter with three more days on the books than is customary, but with about 10 percent less cash (about $162 million). Long-term debt rose nearly 7 percent, to $544 million, as the company paid off $71.6 million in debt. That’s nearly 77 percent less than the $305 million in debt payments the company made during the first quarter of 2008.
Friel said some of the company’s end markets appear to be “stabilizing” but that there “continues to be risk in the global economy,” so the company expects flat or negative organic sales growth and lower earnings per share for the full year.
