Accelrys ($ACCL) touted revenue growth for the fourth quarter of 2012, a year in which the company stayed active on the M&A front and advanced scientific software products for biopharma and other customers.
Results were revealed late in the afternoon on Tuesday, Feb. 26. The company's shares were off less than 1% to $9.45 per share late in the morning on Feb. 27.
Company CEO Max Carnecchia has kept a steady pace of buyouts over the past several years to help fuel growth at the San Diego-based company, most notably with its 2010 merger with electronic lab notebook provider Symyx. Yet the merger and other acquisitions, while beefing up revenue, have obvious costs.
The company reported a GAAP net loss of $8.2 million, or down $0.15 per share, in the fourth quarter of 2012 compared to net income of $14.2 million, or $0.19 per share, in the same quarter a year earlier, with the business impacted by costs associated with the $30 million cash purchase of Aegis Analytical in October 2012 and other expenses. Yet the company's revenue for the quarter jumped 11% to $44.2 million.
A major theme for Accelrys has been to expand its offerings from research to the realm of commercialization, covering a broader part of the development cycle for new drugs and other science-based products. And the company has sought to integrate newly purchased and existing tools to provide customers with a more complete offering. Many of its products, including its electronic lab notebooks, compete directly with a rival business unit at PerkinElmer ($PKI).
"We are pleased with our performance in both 2012 and against the three-year plan we developed for our business following our 2010 merger with Symyx," Carnecchia said in a statement. "We achieved both market momentum and acknowledgment of our position as the leading provider of scientific innovation lifecycle management software."
For 2013, Accelrys rolled out a full-year non-GAAP revenue projection between $185 million and $190 million, up from non-GAAP revenue of $174.3 million in 2012.
- here's the release
- see the transcript of the earnings call on Tuesday from Seeking Alpha