Here's Why You Should Invest In Bio-Rad (BIO) Right Now

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:BIO) has been on a healthy growth trajectory of late. Positive tidings on the regulatory front have lent the company a competitive edge in the MedTech space. With solid prospects, this Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stock is an attractive pick at the moment.

Bio-Rad has outperformed its industry over the past six months. The stock has gained 21.4%, higher than the S&P 500’s 9.8% and the industry’s 5.9%.

The stock has a market cap of $7.92 billion. The company’s next five-year earnings growth rate is also favorable at 29.7% compared with the 18.8% rise of its industry and 11.9% gain of the S&P 500.

The company has a positive earnings surprise of 59.2% for the last four quarters. Also, it has a long-term expected earnings growth rate of 20%.

The company’s estimate revision trend for the current year has been positive. In the past couple of months, three estimates moved north, with no movement in the opposite direction. Earnings estimates rose around 18.4% to $5.86 per share.

Let’s find out whether the recent positive trend is a sustainable one.

3 Factors Boosting Bio-Rad

Strong Q4 Results: The market is upbeat about Bio-Rad’s strong quarterly performance with earnings and sales showing a sharp year-over-year improvement in the fourth quarter. Sales growth was majorly driven by the company’s Life Science product lines. Within Diagnostics, instrument placement was solid throughout 2017.

Guidance Solid: A promising 2018 guidance further instills confidence in the stock. For 2018, Bio-Rad expects currency neutral revenue growth of approximately 3.5-4%. This outlook takes continued strong sales in Life Science segment and increased growth for Diagnostics into account.

Positive Tidings in Regulatory Front:Recently, Bio-Rad announced the receipt of 510(k) FDA clearance for the IH-Incubator L and IH-Centrifuge L instruments to be used with the full range of Bio-Rad’s IH-System Gel Reagents for manual blood typing methods.

All these factors are boosting investor confidence in the stock.

Other Key Picks

Other top-ranked stocksin the broader medical sector are MEDNAX, Inc. (NYSE:MD) , ICU Medical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ICUI) and athenahealth, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATHN) . All the stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

athenahealth has a projected long-term growth rate of 20.7%. The stock provided a positive earnings surprise of 73.4% in the last quarter.

MEDNAX has an expected long-term growth rate of 10%. The stock provided a positive earnings surprise of 3.6% in the last quarter.

ICU Medical has an expected long-term growth rate of 10%. The stock provided a positive earnings surprise of 204.1% in the last quarter.

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