Invitrogen Shares Surge on Upside Surprise and Unit Sale

Invitrogen shares gained almost 7% after hours last night after the company reported better-than-expected results and private equity firm Avista Capital announced it is purchasing the company's BioReliance unit for about $210 million. The BioReliance deal comes on the heels of the company's sale earlier this month of BioSource Europe S.A. Invitrogen posted a Q4 loss of $100.2 million ($2.08/share) on $329.8 million in revenue versus earnings of $49.6 million ($0.87/share) on sales of $325.3 million. However, the loss was the result of one-time charges. When they are excluded, EPS come out to $1.01, well past analyst expectations of $0.73. BioReliance provides safety testing services to drug developers while Invitrogen manufactures research kits that are used in bio-molecular applications like gene analysis and cloning.

Sources: MarketWatch, Business Week, Forbes. Conference call transcript: Q4 2006
Commentary: Top Picks for 2007 from JPMorgan HealthCare Analysts • Barron's: Invitrogen May Outperform An Already Strong Industry • Biotech IPO: Highlights from Rosetta Genomics' F1 Filing
Stocks to watch: Invitrogen Corp. (IVGN). Competitors: Affymetrix Inc. (AFFX), Applera Corp.-Applied Biosystems Group (ABI), Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (ALNY), Applera Corp.-Celera Group (CRA), Isis Pharmaceuticals (ISIS), Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK). ETFs: iShares Trust FTSE-Xinhua China 25 Index Fund (FXI), PowerShares Golden Dragon Halter USX China Portfolio (PGJ)

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