Medidata Solutions came through with upbeat financial results for the third quarter, showing some oomph in its business of providing software for clinical researchers. The New York-based firm ($MDSO) got a boost from its application services business and margin expansion, Reuters reported.
The company saw the immediate benefits of its June acquisition of Clinical Force, a provider of hosted software in the clinical trials management systems (CTMS) category, which helped Medidata bring on more than half of its 33 new customers during the third quarter. Quarterly earnings jumped 13% to $46.3 million, and GAAP and Non-GAAP operating income spiked 25% and 18% compared with the third quarter last year, to $7.6 and $11.9 million, respectively. Gross margins were up 3% to 71%, according to the company's press release.
Shares of Medidata were up 4.5% as of 11:29 am ET on Tuesday.
Medidata has been a closely watched stock among providers of clinical trials software for drug developers and contract research organizations (CROs). It gives some solid competition to tech giant Oracle ($ORCL) in the market for electronic data capture (EDC), which has become a mature segment of the clinical tech space, as well as other areas. Medidata has invested heavily making itself a leader in software-as-a-service applications for clinical researchers, banking on customers such as drug developers' desire to use software that doesn't require the customer to store and maintain the software.
"Medidata's strong Q3 and record year to date results reflect the unique business value that our SaaS-based product portfolio brings to the clinical development process," Tarek Sherif, Medidata's CEO, said in a statement. "Our role as a leading supplier of critical infrastructure and business analytics to the global life sciences and CRO sectors is driving increased revenues, profits and market share."
- here's Medidata's release
- read the Reuters report