Haemonetics (HAE) will hold its annual investor and analyst day on May 12, 2011 at its corporate headquarters in Braintree, Massachusetts. Other than guidance for fiscal 2012, the company will discuss issues such as the Plasma market scenario, status of IMPACT’s sales and an update on the various R&D initiatives.
Haemonetics earns about 82% of its revenues from the sale of disposables – plasma disposables, blood bank disposables and hospital disposables. Of these divisions, the maximum contribution comes from plasma disposables. However, for the past few quarters this segment has been witnessing some challenges.
Average weekly shipments of plasma disposables in the last reported quarter (third quarter of fiscal 2011) were up 17% from the average daily shipments in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2010, which was the lower end of the recent plasma downturn. On a sequential basis, shipments increased 5%.
The company witnessed a recovery in its plasma business despite increased whole blood collections by the Japanese Red Cross (JRC), its largest customer, which hurts its plasma business in that region. Adjusting for the decline in Japanese plasma sales, plasma business witnessed annualized growth of 5% during the quarter. Haemonetics expects full year plasma revenue growth in the range of 0%−2%.
Haemonetics is focused on blood management solutions to provide better services to customers. The company’s web based blood management portal, IMPACT Online, has witnessed greater acceptance among customers. During the third quarter, the company added 47 IMPACT accounts, the maximum in a quarter, resulting in a total of 165 accounts compared with the goal of 175 for fiscal 2011.
Moreover, the total number of international IMPACT customers stood at 37 and revenue growth from these accounts has been impressive. The expansion into European markets is all the more significant since the company had no exposure outside the US before fiscal 2011. IMPACT was launched in Europe at the beginning of the first quarter.
An update regarding Haemonetics’ R&D initiative is awaited, especially, with respect to its next-generation surgical blood salvage device, an automated whole blood collection system. The company has also allocated resources to its subsidiary, Arryx (acquired in July 2006), for continuing its research in nanotechnology applications in the blood typing and screening field. Arryx technology is currently being developed to address the current market need with respect to rapidity, accuracy and data interpretation.
We are currently Neutral on the stock.
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