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April 23 (Reuters) – Thermo Fisher Scientific on Thursday reported first-quarter profit and revenue above Wall Street estimates, as growth in its laboratory products and biopharma services business helped offset softness in analytical instruments and specialty diagnostics.
Shares of the company, however, were down 3.1% in premarket trade.
Life-sciences tools and services companies have been contending with cautious post-pandemic funding for smaller biotechs, weak academic research funding even as demand linked to pharmaceutical research and manufacturing has shown signs of stabilization.
The Trump administration has been slashing funding and freezing grants for universities and research bodies to which Thermo provides its products and services.
Thermo Fisher posted quarterly revenue of $11.01 billion, above analysts’ estimate of $10.85 billion, according to LSEG data. Revenue rose 6% from a year earlier.
Revenue from the Waltham, Massachusetts-based company’s largest segment, laboratory products and biopharma services, rose about 7% to $6.04 billion in the quarter, from $5.64 billion a year earlier.
Revenue from analytical instruments were flat at $1.72 billion.
Specialty diagnostics, which sells diagnostic test kits, saw revenue dip by about 0.5% to $1.14 billion.
Industry peer Danaher topped first-quarter profit expectations earlier this week, helped by strong demand for its bioprocessing tools used in drug manufacturing.
Thermo Fisher reported adjusted earnings per share of $5.44 for the quarter ended March 28, compared with analysts’ estimate of $5.24.
(Reporting by Sahil Pandey and Puyaan Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)