Bio-Rad Q2 Revenues Jump 14 Percent

Bio-Rad Laboratories reported after the close of the market recently thatits second quarter revenues increased 14 percent year over year, driven bygrowth in both its Life Science and Clinical Diagnostics businesses.

For the three months ended June 30, Bio-Rad tallied net salesof $575.9 million compared to $504.7 million in Q2 2017, beating analysts'consensus estimate of $548.4 million. On a currency-neutralbasis, Q2 sales increased 11 percent year over year, the company said.

Life Science segment sales were $217.8 million, up 21 percentyear over year, or 19 percent on a currency-neutral basis. LifeScience growth was driven by cell biology, process media, digital PCR, and foodsafety products.

On a conference call to discuss the company's earnings,Bio-Rad Executive Vice President and CFO Christine Tsingos noted that process media was aparticularly bright spot, but it benefitted from an easy comparison to theprior-year quarter. Excluding this, currency-neutral growthin the Life Sciences segment was still 14 percent year over year.

Clinical Diagnostics segment sales grew 10 percent to $354.0million, or 6.5 percent on a currency-neutral basis. Growth in this segmentwas driven by blood typing, quality control, and immunology product lines. In particular, Tsingos said on the call, the company saw asignificant increase in blood typing instrument sales.

Bio-Rad's Q2 net income was $268.0 million, or $8.87 pershare, compared to $5.0 million, or $.17 per share, in the year-ago period. Net income in Q2 2018