Immucor Inc. (BLUD): Zacks Rank Buy
Bill Wilton
Friday December 26, 2008, 1:00 am EST

Immucor Inc.
Immucor Inc.(NasdaqGS: BLUD - News) recently reported a company record for net income in a quarter and completed an acquisition. Earnings are showing solid growth for next year and are traded at a fair value.
Company Description
Immucor is an international in vitro diagnostic company dedicated to automating manual processes in the hospital/donor laboratory. They develop, manufacture, and sell products used by hospital blood banks, clinical laboratories, and large blood-donor centers to test, detect, and identify certain properties of human blood prior to patient transfusion.
Immucor's instruments utilize patented solid phase technology reagents to perform ABO grouping tests, RH typing, antibody screening, and platelet cross-matching.
Record First Quarter Results
On Oct 1 Immucor announced one of the best quarters in company history that included revenues of $73.2 million, a 15% year-over-year increase. About 75% of the revenue growth came from the U.S.
Net income for the quarter was $20 million, the highest in company history. The figure translates to earnings of 28 cents per share. Wall Street was expecting 23 cents per share, making it the third consecutive earnings surprise.
Dr. De Chirico, President and CEO said, 'All-time highs were achieved in revenues, and net income for the quarter as our strategies to grow our business and the execution of our plan once again generated outstanding results.'
Growth With Reasonable Valuations
The current consensus for next year, fiscal 2010, is $1.16. The forecast represents a year-over-year increase of 19%. The current long-term growth rate is 20%, which brings the relatively high P/E ratio of 23.4 to a PEG ratio of 1.3.
Acquisition Complete
Immucor completed a previously announced deal to acquire BioArray Sollutions, a molecular diagnostic company specializing in blood transfusions. The cash only deal was valued at $108.2 million.
Shares of BLUD have been bouncing off of support at $22 per share. The level has been tested several times and is holding well.

IMMUCOR

Companies That Could Issue Positive Earnings Surprises
The fiscal second-quarter consensus earnings estimate for Immucor, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLUD - News) has risen by a penny over the past 30 days to 21 cents per share. The most accurate estimate is even more bullish at 24 cents per share. The reagent manufacturer has topped expectations for 3 consecutive quarters by an average margin of 4 cents per share. Immucor is scheduled to report on Wednesday, Jan 7, after the close of trading.

Immucor Beats Ests, Stays a Buy

Immucor Beats Ests, Stays a Buy
Tuesday October 14, 12:49 pm ET By Tom Park

Immucor, Inc. (NasdaqGS: BLUD - News) makes automated systems and reagents used in the testing of human blood prior to transfusion. The Norcross, Georgia-based company reported first-quarter earnings that beat our estimate by $0.05 on sales that also exceeded our forecast. The additional worldwide placements of Galileo continue to help drive Immucor's growth.
The acquisition of BioArray Solutions is expected to be significantly dilutive over the next several years. Management revised its fiscal 2009 guidance. However, although initially under pressure after placing instruments, gross margins are expected to regain momentum from the eventual growth in reagent sales, manufacturing efficiencies, and price increases. The acquisition is expected to transform Immucor into a leader in molecular diagnostic systems for blood transfusions. We rate the stock a Buy.
At its current price of $23.93 per share, BLUD is trading at roughly 25x our fiscal 2009 earnings estimate of $0.95 per share, which is at a premium to the group multiple of roughly 22x. Although continuing to grow, revenue may fall below expectations due to lower than anticipated sales from the customer loyalty program and Europe. We believe the stock is appropriately valued at roughly 33x fiscal 2009 EPS estimate. Our target price moves to $31.

Immucor Q1 profit rises

Immucor Q1 profit rises
Atlanta Business Chronicle
Immucor Q2 profit rises 15%
Immucor acquires BioArray Solutions
Immucor sets record profit in fiscal 2008
Immucor Inc. hit record quarterly profitability and revenue in the first quarter of fiscal 2009.
The Norcross, Ga.-based blood reagent systems maker had net income of $20 million and earnings of 28 cents a share, compared with net income of $17.8 million and earnings of 25 cents a share in the first quarter of fiscal 2008.
Revenue increased 15.2 percent to a record $73.2 million, boosted by $7.3 million from price increases in the United States.
"We are very pleased with our record quarterly financial results and the number of Echo [instruments] orders received in North America," said Gioacchino De Chirico, president and CEO. "... All-time highs were achieved in revenues, and net income for the quarter as our strategies to grow our business and the execution of our plan once again generated outstanding results."

Immucor Schedules First Quarter Earnings Release and Conference

Press Release
Source: Immucor, Inc.
Immucor Schedules First Quarter Earnings Release and Conference CallWednesday September 24, 4:01 pm ET
NORCROSS, Ga., Sept. 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Immucor, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLUD - News), a global leader in providing automated instrument-reagent systems to the blood transfusion industry, today announced that it expects to release its first quarter earnings on Wednesday, October 1, 2008, after the close of regular trading hours, and then host a conference call on Thursday, October 2, 2008 at 8:30 AM (EDT) to review the results. Investors are invited to participate in this conference call, with Dr. Gioacchino De Chirico, President and Chief Executive Officer, Richard A. Flynt, Chief Financial Officer, and Edward L. Gallup, consultant. The call will focus on the results for the first quarter and general business trends. The earnings release will be posted on Immucor's website, as well as any material financial information that may be discussed by Dr. De Chirico, Mr. Flynt, or Mr. Gallup during this call that is not contained in the earnings release. Both the earnings release and the additional financial information, if any, will be posted as soon as practicable after the call on the investor news section of Immucor's website. To access this information once posted, go to Immucor's website at www.immucor.com and click on "About Us - Press Releases."
To participate in the telephone conference call, dial 1-888-324-7567 and passcode BLUD. Replays of the conference call will be available for one week beginning at 12:00 noon on October 2nd by calling 1-800-337-5610. Beginning October 9, 2008, audio of the conference call or a transcript of the audio will be available on the "About Us - Press Releases" page of the Immucor website.
For more information on Immucor, please visit our website at www.immucor.com.
Founded in 1982, Immucor manufactures and sells a complete line of reagents and systems used by hospitals, reference laboratories and donor centers to detect and identify certain properties of the cell and serum components of blood prior to transfusion. Immucor markets a complete family of automated instrumentation for all of its market segments.