Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.
What: Shares of Hologic (HOLX -3.13%), a manufacturer of diagnostic, imaging, and surgical products for women, jumped as much as 11% after reporting better-than-expected second-quarter earnings results after the closing bell last night.
So what: For the quarter, Hologic delivered a 2% increase in revenue to $625 million, aided most by its breast health segment which saw revenue rise 8.5%. Adjusted income improved nearly 10% to $103.1 million, or $0.37 per share. By comparison, Wall Street had only been expecting Hologic to report a profit of $0.33 per share on revenue of $609.2 million. Furthermore, Hologic boosted its full-year revenue forecast to a fresh range of $2.46 billion-$2.49 billion, up from $2.43 billion-$2.48 billion, and raised its EPS range to $1.37-$1.40 from $1.34-$1.38, placing it more or less in-line with the Street's projections.
Now what: Focusing solely on women's health gives Hologic a comparative advantage that it's been using to deliver impressive organic growth for years. With strong pricing power comes fairly predictable margins – and investors love predictability in the health care sector. At 15 times forward earnings Hologic isn't too particularly expensive as long as it can continue to grow organically, even by low single-digits. For health care-savvy investors looking to take advantage of a relatively low volatility and profitable niche device and diagnostics company, I'd suggest digging a bit deeper into Hologic.
