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Here's Why You Should Hold on to PerkinElmer (PKI) Stock Now

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PerkinElmer, Inc. is well-poised for growth, backed by a robust product portfolio and impressive margin expansion. However, forex remains a concern.

Shares of this currently Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company have gained 23% compared with the industry’s growth of 11.9% over the past six months. The S&P 500 Index has rallied 9.3% in the same time frame.

PerkinElmer — with a market capitalization of $23.67 billion — offers scientific instruments, consumables and services to pharmaceutical, biomedical, environmental testing, chemical and general industrial markets worldwide. It anticipates earnings to improve 44.2% over the next five years. The company has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 21.5%, on average.

Key Catalysts

PerkinElmer delivers a comprehensive suite of scientific informatics and software solutions to aggregate data into actionable insights in an automated and scalable way.

Per management, the company spent an incremental $25 million on people and digital capabilities and invested above $200 million in R&D to continuously develop a robust pipeline of new products across a full array of technologies.

COVID-related products and services contributed $300 million in the third quarter of 2021, primarily driven by the company’s core products and COVID-related lab services. Per management, the company’s COVID and non-COVID revenue performance surpassed expectations with double-digit growth in its Discovery & Analytical Solutions and Diagnostics segments.

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With respect to COVID-related product launches and approvals, in October 2021, EUROIMMUN, a PerkinElmer company, announced that it has received the FDA’s Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for its Anti-SARS-CoV-2 S1 Curve ELISA (IgG). This assay enables the qualitative and semi-quantitative detection of IgG antibodies produced against the SARS-CoV-2 S1 antigen in human serum and plasma. In the same month, PerkinElmer announced that it has received EUA from the FDA for the PKamp Respiratory SARS-CoV-2-RT-PCR Panel 1 assay.

The company’s gross and operating margin continues to improve on the back of productivity initiatives and volume leverage. The product introductions are anticipated to enhance the product mix, thereby increasing the gross margin. This, coupled with stringent cost control, will continue to drive the operating margin in the near term.

In the third quarter of 2021, adjusted gross profit amounted to $673.5 million, up 23.7% year over year. Adjusted gross margin, as a percentage of revenues was 57.7%, up 120 basis points (bps) year over year. Adjusted operating income was $358.9 million, which climbed 17.9% from the year-ago quarter. The company’s adjusted operating margin remained robust at 31%.

Factor Hurting the Stock

Growing exposure to the international markets makes the company susceptible to the risk of adverse foreign exchange volatility. The unfavorable fluctuations in currency exchange rates can affect PerkinElmer’s international sales.

Estimate Trend

PerkinElmer has been witnessing an upward estimate revision trend for 2021. In the past 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for its earnings moved north by 9.3% to $10.83.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fourth-quarter 2021 revenues is pegged at $1.22 billion, suggesting a decline of 10.3% from the year-ago reported number.

Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked stocks in the broader medical space include Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (TMO - Free Report) , McKesson Corporation (MCK - Free Report) and NextGen Healthcare, Inc. .

Thermo Fisher surpassed earnings estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 9.02%. The company currently carries a Zacks Rank of 2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Thermo Fisher’s long-term earnings growth rate is estimated at 14%. The company’s earnings yield of 3.7% compares favorably with the industry’s (3.6%).

McKesson beat earnings estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 19.9%. The company currently carries a Zacks Rank #2.

McKesson’s long-term earnings growth rate is estimated at 8.9%. The company’s earnings yield of 9.9% compares favorably with the industry’s 3.2%.

NextGen Healthcare surpassed earnings estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 16%. The company currently carries a Zacks Rank of 2.

NextGen Healthcare’s long-term earnings growth rate is estimated at 8.5%. The company’s earnings yield of 5.9% compares favorably with the industry’s (4.1%).


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