$LDL said acquisition was financed through combination of cash on hand and $85MM of borrowings from amended revolving credit facility, which was increased to $175MM. The amended facility provides additional capacity to support organic growth programs, fund capital investments and continue pursuits of attractive acquisitions.
$A elected Dow Wilson, CEO of Varian Medical Systems Inc., to its BoD, effective March 20, 2018. Wilson is also a board member of AdvaMed, a U.S. trade association representing 80% of the medical technology firms in the U.S., and Varex Imaging Corp., which was created through the successful spin-off of Varian Medical.
$CBT elected Cynthia Arnold to its BoD, effective Jan. 18, 2018. She was also appointed a member of the Compensation Committee. $CBT elected Sue Rataj as Non-Executive Chair of the Board of Directors, effective March 9, 2018. $CBT said Roderick MacLeod will retire from the Board, effective at annual meeting that will be held on March 8, 2018.
$A acquired Cork, Ireland-based Luxcel Biosciences, a developer of real-time fluorescence plate-reader based in vitro cell assay kits. This acquisition expands $A's cell analysis portfolio with the addition of easy-to-use assay kits that are compatible with industry standard plate-readers. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Electronics company $MEI has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.11 per share on its common stock, representing a 22% increase versus the previous dividend. The dividend is payable on January 26, 2018, to stockholders of record on January 12, 2018.
$MEI updated its FY18 guidance to sales in the range of $880-900MM from $807-827MM, mainly due to incremental sales from acquisitions. The company, however, maintained its FY18 pre-tax income from operations in the range of $114-127MM and EPS in the range of $2.43-2.63.
Developer of custom engineered and application specific products and solutions, $MEI posted a 2.8% fall in 2Q18 profit, driven by higher expenses, lower sales volume in the Interface segment and unfavorable currency impact. Profit fell to $24.2MM or $0.64 per share from $24.9MM or $0.66 a year earlier. Revenue however, jumped 9.9% to $230.1MM.
$DCI reported a 5% YoY growth in earnings to $60.9MM, or $0.46 per share, for 1Q18. Excluding items, EPS grew 21% YoY. Sales increased 16.6% to $644.8MM, with Engine segment up 25% and Industrial up 1.8%. The company expects FY18 GAAP EPS between $1.90 and $2.04, up 6% from prior forecast. Sales to increase 10-14% vs. the prior forecast of 4-8%.
For FY18, $A expects pharma to moderate down slightly from a 6% growth rate delivered in FY17. Agilent expects China to maintain a high-single-digit growth rate. For Europe and the chemical and energy markets, while Agilent experienced unexpectedly strong FY17 growth, the company cautiously guided to lower growth in FY18.
In FY18, $ESE expects sales to grow approx 13% YoY, and adjusted EBITDA to increase 15-17%. The company projects FY18 GAAP EPS to be in the range of $2.30 to $2.40 per share, including the profit contributions from the recent acquisitions.
$ESE, a provider of engineered products and solutions, reported 30% jump in net sales to $207MM in 4Q17. Net income rose to $19.2MM, or $0.74 per share, compared to $16.9MM, or $0.65 per share in the year-over period. On an adjusted basis, net income rose to $0.79 per share.
$CBT has indefinitely idled three of the seven production units at its activated carbon manufacturing facility in Texas, due to reduction in demand. $CBT expects this to result in a pretax charge to earnings of approx. $9MM, of which less than $1MM is cash. Annual savings are estimated to be approx. $6MM, of which approx. $5MM is cash.
