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Here's Why You Should Retain Bio-Rad (BIO) Stock for Now

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Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (BIO - Free Report) is well-poised for growth in the coming quarters, backed by robust demand in Life Science and Clinical Diagnostics arms. Solid prospects in the blood typing market look encouraging.  However, foreign exchange woes and tough competition are concerning.

In the past year, shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company have lost 11.2% compared with the 38.4% fall of the industry and a 7.9% decline of the S&P 500 composite.

The renowned manufacturer and global supplier of clinical diagnostics and life science research products has a market capitalization of $11.79 billion.

In the past five years, the company registered earnings growth of 31.2%, way ahead of the industry’s 10.2% rise and the S&P 500’s 13.4% increase. The company’s earnings have surpassed estimates in the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 31.52%.

Let’s delve deeper.

Key Drivers

Segmental Growth:  During 2022, despite supply chain constraints, the underlying Life Science year-over-year currency-neutral core revenue growth was 28.1%. The year-over-year growth was primarily driven by Droplet Digital PCR, process chromatography and Western blotting. The company also witnessed substantial growth for qPCR products, partly driven by the uptake of the new CFX Opus platform. The company continued to experience strong initial customer interest and demand for the recently introduced QX600 ddPCR system. Bio-Rad also expects a more meaningful revenue contribution from this platform in 2023.

Clinical Diagnostics Continue to Gain Momentum: During fourth-quarter 2022, the Diagnostics group’s year-over-year currency neutral core revenues increased in the Americas and declined in Europe and in Asia. Sales of Clinical Diagnostics products in 2022 were up 0.4% on a currency-neutral basis. Excluding COVID-related sales, Clinical Diagnostic registered currency-neutral core revenue growth of 1.3% year over year, impacted by supply chain constraints.

Solid Prospects in the Blood Typing Market: Bio-Rad offers a broad range of platforms, reagents, data management and connectivity solutions to cater to various blood typing demands, offering efficient and reliable results for blood grouping, phenotyping, crossmatching, antibody screening and identification, direct antiglobulin tests, and single antigen typing. The company has also been actively expanding its portfolio for the blood typing market. The company currently offers products like IH-500 and IH-1000.

Zacks Investment ResearchImage Source: Zacks Investment Research

According to the latest report by Reports and Data, the global blood group typing market size is expected to reach $6.18 billion by 2028 at a CAGR of 10.1%. Taking this into account, we view the developmental steps undertaken by the company as progressive and strategically aligned.

Downsides

Tough Competitive Pressure: Bio-Rad operates in a highly-competitive environment dominated by firms varying from large multinational corporations with significant resources to start-ups. Also, the competitive and regulatory conditions in the markets where the company operates limit Bio-Rad’s ability to switch to strategies like price increases and other drivers of cost increases.

Exposure to Foreign Currency: Bio-Rad derives more than 50% of its revenues from the international market, which exposes it to the effects of fluctuations in foreign currency. In the past several years, the company’s earnings were significantly affected by foreign exchange.

Estimate Trends

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Bio-Rad’s 2023 earnings is pegged at $15.77, suggesting a 9.4% rise from the year-ago reported number.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company’s 2023 revenues is pinned at $2.95 billion, indicating a 5.4% rise from the year-ago reported number.

Key Picks

Few top-ranked stocks in the overall healthcare sector include Haemonetics Corporation (HAE - Free Report) , TerrAscend Corp. and Akerna Corp. . Haemonetics and TerrAscend both sport a Zacks Rank #1, while Akerna carries a Zack Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Haemonetics’ stock has risen 42.1% in the past year. Earnings Estimates for Haemonetics have increased from $2.87 per share to 2.91 for 2023 and from $3.02 per share to $3.28 for 2024 in the past 30 days.

HAE’s earnings beat estimates in each of the last four quarters, delivering an average surprise of 10.98%. In the last reported quarter, it reported an earnings surprise of 7.59%.

Estimates for TerrAscend in 2023 have remained constant at a loss of 10 cents per share in the past 30 days. Shares of TerrAscend have declined 70.6% in the past year.

TerrAscend’s earnings beat estimates in one of the last three quarters and missed the mark in the other two, the average negative surprise being 136.11%. In the last reported quarter, TRSSF delivered an earnings surprise of 216.67%.

Akerna’s stock declined 95.7% in the past year. Its estimates for 2023 have remained constant at a loss of $1.91 per share over the past 30 days.

Akerna missed earnings estimates in each of the last four quarters, reporting a negative earnings surprise of 15.49%, on average. In the last reported quarter, KERN recorded a negative earnings surprise of 13.33%.


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