The corporate treasury continues to grow almost as fast as the increasingly sterling reputation of Lansing-based Neogen Corporation, the parent of St. Joseph-based International Diagnostic Systems on Cleveland Avenue. Thanks to organic growth from increased sales in combination with their ongoing growth by acquisition, Neogen has posted strong financials for their second fiscal quarter for 2017.
Neogen, a manufacturer of test kits for food and animal safety markets, announced Wednesday that net income for the second quarter of its fiscal year which ended November 30th, increased by 23-percent to $11,151,000, or $0.29 per fully diluted share, up from $9,073,000, or $0.24 per share in fiscal 2016. Current year-to-date net income clocks in at $21,032,000, or $0.55 per share as compared to $18,396,000, or $0.49 per share for the same period a year ago.
Revenues for the second quarter of fiscal 2017 increased 14-percent to $90,717,000, from the previous year’s second quarter revenues of $79,610,000. That increase was aided in part by recent acquisitions. The quarterly revenue and net income results represent records for the 34-year old company. Year-to-date, fiscal 2017 revenues increased by 13-percent to $174,362,000 from fiscal 2016’s $154,471,000.
James Herbert is Neogen’s Chairman & CEO. He says, “Our second quarter shows Neogen’s growth strategies continue to provide solid results, as we expanded our core business and efficiently integrated acquisitions.” He adds, “We view these strong results as another snapshot of Neogen’s growth capabilities. We take pride in our outstanding sustained profitability, which allows us to capitalize on growth opportunities.”
The second quarter was the 99th of the past 104 quarters that Neogen reported revenue increases as compared with the previous year — including every consecutive quarter in the last 11 years.
Richard Calk is Neogeon’s President & Chief Operating Officer. He says, “We are pleased to report that a significant portion of our second quarter growth was due to increases in sales of key products, including natural toxin and food allergen diagnostics in our Food Safety segment, and genomic and drug testing in our Animal Safety segment.” He notes that DON outbreaks in the U.S., Canadian and European grain harvests “created significant opportunities for existing product lines, and we were able to quickly ramp up production to meet the demand.”
Expressed as a percentage of sales, operating income was 18.6-percent for the second quarter, compared to 18.4-percent in the same quarter a year ago. Neogen’s gross margin was 48.1-percent of sales in its second quarter of the current year, compared to 48.0-percent recorded in the same quarter of the prior fiscal year.
Acquisitions in the recent past include Preserve International, a Nevada-based firm…a rodenticide line from the Virbac Group of France…and Brazil’s Deoxi.
Neogen and it’s subsidiary group at International Diagnostics Systems, or IDS, based in St. Joseph, develop and market products dedicated to food and animal safety.
