Despite a slight dip in second-quarter revenues, Millipore Corp. managed to boost its Q2 net income by nearly 6 percent.
The Billerica, Mass.-based lab instruments maker posted sales of $408.6 million during the three months ended July 4, down 1.4 percent compared with $414.2 million during the same period last year.
Quarterly net income rose to $40.4 million, or $0.72 per share, up 5.7 percent compared with $38.2 million, or $0.69 per share, during the second quarter of 2008.
Interest expense seemed to make the difference during the quarter, dropping 21 percent to $14.5 million compared with $18.3 million during the year-ago quarter.
Chairman and CEO Martin Madaus credited higher spending on Millipore’s downstream bioprocessing products in North America and Asia for the growth and said the company expects slower growth during the second half of the year.
Millipore upped its guidance for the full year, saying it expects revenues to grow between 2 percent and 3 percent for the full year (previous guidance predicted a range between a 1 percent decline and 1 percent growth).