Shares of Qiagen N.V.
QGEN,
slumped 4.5% in morning trading Monday, reversing an earlier intraday gain of as much 1.7%, after the Netherlands-based biotechnology company provided an upbeat second-quarter revenue outlook, citing stronger-than-expected sales of non-COVID product groups, but also a downbeat third-quarter estimate. The company, which is projected to report full results on or about July 29, said it expects second-quarter sales to rise 28% from a year ago to $567.3 million, which is above the FactSet consensus of $554.5 million, as non-COVID product sales increased 57% to $$08 million while COVID-19 product sales grew 13% to $160 million. The company expects adjusted earnings per share of 66 cents to 67 cents, which would be the FactSet consensus of 62 cents. For the third quarter, the company expects sales at constants currency exchange rates (CER) to be about the same level of year-ago sales of $483.8 million and adjusted EPS CER of about 52 cents to 53 cents, with currency movements expected to boost sales growth by 1-to-2 percentage rates and EPS growth by a penny a share. The FactSet consensus is currently for Q3 sales of $558 million and adjusted EPS of 58 cents. Separately, the company said it plans to buy back up to $100 million worth of its shares, which represents roughly about 9.1% of the company’s market capitalization of $11.02 billion. The stock has shed 8.7% year to date, while the S&P 500
SPX,
has gained 16.5%.
