UNION CITY, Calif., Jan. 28, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Abaxis, Inc. (NasdaqGS: ABAX), a global diagnostics company manufacturing point-of-care blood analysis instruments and consumables for the medical and veterinary markets worldwide, today reported financial results for the third fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2015.
Third quarter highlights include:
- Total medical and veterinary reagent disc sales of 2.3 million units, up 12% over last year's comparable quarter.
- International revenues of $11.8 million, up 12% over last year's comparable quarter.
- Gross profit from continuing operations of $29.6 million, up 3% over last year's comparable quarter.
- Income from operations of $11.3 million, up 16% over last year's comparable quarter.
- Diluted EPS from continuing operations of $0.35, up 30% over last year's comparable quarter.
- Cash, cash equivalents and investments of $155.4 million as of December 31, 2015.
- Abaxis paid dividends of $2.5 million, or $0.11 per share, during the third quarter of fiscal 2016.
"Revenues in the third quarter of fiscal 2016 reflected strong growth in consumable sales," said Clint Severson, chairman and chief executive officer of Abaxis. "Unit sales of our higher margin medical and veterinary reagent discs increased by 12% over last year's third quarter. In particular, our medical reagent disc sales were strong, increasing by 23% over last year's third quarter. These results reflect continued strength in our portfolio of consumable products."
Mr. Severson continued, "We are targeting continued momentum in the medical market, both domestically and internationally. We believe the medical market represents a significant opportunity for Abaxis in the coming years. We have made consistent progress in building our medical business through our partnership with Abbott Point of Care, Inc. and expect it to become an even larger contributor to our results going forward. Furthermore, during the third quarter of fiscal 2016, we sold 200 Piccolo Xpress instruments to a leading medical device distributor in the People's Republic of China and we look forward to continuing to provide our Piccolo medical products through our distribution partnership."
Mr. Severson continued, "We also expanded our growth opportunities in the veterinary market. In the third quarter of fiscal 2016, we entered into a five-year supply agreement with Banfield Pet Hospitals to provide our VetScan hematology analyzers and associated consumables to all of Banfield's more than 900 pet hospital locations, with installation and training to begin late in our fourth quarter of fiscal 2016. We are excited about the possibilities these new relationships offer. Our solid earnings results reflect continued strength in our operating margins and were also supported by a lower effective tax rate for the third quarter of fiscal 2016 due to the reinstatement of the federal research and development tax credit."
Mr. Severson concluded, "All in all, we are pleased with the results of the quarter. While the results for last year's comparable quarter was very strong due to the Ebola crisis and the impact of our new distributor partners in the veterinary market, we remain focused on continuing to grow our business in a cost efficient manner. "
Dividend Declared
Abaxis today announced that its Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.11 per common share, to be paid on March 17, 2016, to all shareholders of record as of the close of business on March 3, 2016.
Results of Continuing Operations
Quarterly Results
For the fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2015, Abaxis reported revenues from continuing operations of $52.9 million, as compared with revenues of $56.1 million for the comparable period last year, a decrease of 6 percent. Revenues from sales of instruments, which include chemistry analyzers, hematology instruments, VSpro specialty analyzers and iSTAT analyzers, decreased by $7.6 million, or 40 percent, compared to the same period last year. Revenues from sales of consumables, which include reagent discs, hematology reagent kits, VSpro specialty cartridges, iSTAT cartridges and rapid tests, increased by $4.2 million, or 12 percent, over the same period last year.
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