Neogen Q3 Profit Edges Down - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Neogen Corp. (NEOG) said that its third quarter net income attributable to the company edged down to $6.575 million from the prior year's $6.652 million. Adjusted for a 3-for-2 stock split effective October 31, 2013, earnings per share in the latest-quarter quarter were $0.18, compared to $0.18 a year ago.

Quarterly revenues increased 21% to $61.996 million from the previous year's $51.055 million.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.18 per share and revenues of $60.38 million for the third-quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

"We are pleased to report our solid third quarter revenue results….Our third quarter acquisition of the Chem-Tech insecticide business, and other recent strategic moves, have increased the depth and breadth of Neogen's food security product portfolio. This continued strong top line growth has penalized bottom line results, due in part to changing product mix and integration costs," said James Herbert, Neogen's chief executive officer and chairman.

"Similar to our second quarter, the current year's third quarter faced an extremely tough comparison against the previous year quarter when our gross margins were driven sharply higher because of very profitable sales of mycotoxin test kits to defend against toxins in grain caused by weather conditions," said Steve Snyder, Neogen's president and chief operating officer. "However, our organic growth of food safety products was 11%, with attractive margins."