CRO

Parexel bets big on the future as revenue swells

Parexel CEO Josef von Rickenbach

Parexel ($PRXL) turned in another quarter of double-digit sales growth, riding increases in IT and consulting revenues to a huge year-over-year jump in profits.

The company hauled in $463.1 million in revenue in its fiscal fourth quarter, an 18% jump over the previous year, and net income increased 68.5% to $30 million. The CRO's largest business, clinical research services, grew 17.6% to $343.4 million, while its consulting unit ticked up 9.3% to $54.3 million and IT segment Perceptive Informatics leapt 28.7% to $65.4 million on the quarter.

For the full fiscal year, Parexel cranked out $1.7 billion in revenue, a 24% jump over 2012, and, thanks to its recent acquisitions and expanding market share, the CRO is expecting up to $1.9 billion for fiscal 2014, up to 10.2% growth.

Over the past 6 months, Parexel spent nearly $100 million combined on Heron and Liquent, folding the former into its regulatory consultancy segment and using the latter to bolster the fast-growing Perceptive Informatics. Those deals, coupled with Parexel's sizable seat at the global outsourcing table, set the stage for more growth to come, CEO Josef von Rickenbach said.

"While we have delivered on many of our shorter-term plans, we believe that we still have a lot of opportunity ahead of us," von Rickenbach said in a statement. "... We believe that the market for our products and services remains solid, and that Parexel's competitive position is favorable."

And the CRO is hardly done shopping. In June, Parexel started selling off securities to raise $100 million, planning to earmark some of those funds for future acquisitions, the company said. Earlier this year, CFO James Winschel told investors Parexel was considering as many as 20 deals across the globe.

- read Parexel's full results