Thermo Fisher Scientific
stock slumped Wednesday after the maker of lab equipment and analytical instruments reported lower quarterly sales than expected and again cut its full-year financial forecasts.
Thermo Fisher (ticker: TMO) reported earnings of $5.69 a share from revenue of $10.57 billion for the three months ended in September. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected the company to post earnings of $5.61 a share from revenue of $10.6 billion, so the results were a slight miss on the sales front.
But that isn’t the really bad news.
Citing a challenging economic environment, Thermo Fisher slashed its earnings and sales guidance for the second consecutive quarter. The company now expects 2023 earnings per share of $21.50 from revenue of $42.7 billion. In July, the group said earnings could be in a range as high as $22.72 a share with revenue of as much as $44 billio, while in April, it said profit could be $23.70 a share from revenue of $45.3 billion.
“While market conditions further weakened during the third quarter, I’m very pleased with our team’s execution which enabled our company to deliver both excellent margin expansion and adjusted EPS growth,” said Marc Casper, Thermo Fisher’s chairman and CEO. “We also continue to invest for the future and a great example of this is our recently announced agreement to acquire Olink.”
Shares in Thermo Fisher were down 7.2% in late morning. In early trading, when the stock had tumbled 8.9%, the company was the biggest decliner in the
S&P 500
and on track for its worst daily performance since October 2011, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Thermo Fisher was a Barron’s stock pick in April. The shares had fallen 16% since then as of Tuesday’s close.
Write to Jack Denton at [email protected]
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