A Fistful of Life Sciences

As the whirlwind that is earnings season churns on, a host of life sciences companies have recently reported earnings. Although conditions were not quite as strong in general as a year ago, the sector continues to grow. Here are some of the major highlights and takeaways for investors. 

A SOLiD Plan
Although Life Technologies (Nasdaq:LIFE) is often compared to Illumina, it is actually a considerably larger and more diversified company. True, sequencing is important here (and demand for the SOLiD 4 platform helped boost Genetic Systems growth into the low teens), but other businesses like PCR, reagents and flow cytometry are significant.

The third quarter was pretty good for LIFE, despite some challenging comps. Revenue rose almost 8% (6% on an organic basis), and very tight expense control fueled a 15% improvement in operating income. 


Please click below for the full article:
http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2010/A-Fistfull-Of-Life-Sciences-LIFE-ILMN-TMO-WAT-TECH1029.aspx