Immucor tops analyst forcast: with blood machine:

Immucor Inc. late Wednesday posted quarterly results that beat analysts' forecasts due to strong sales of its blood diagnostics systems, but the shares lost ground as the company said it now expects to launch the latest version of its Galileo automated blood bank system in its fiscal fourth quarter instead of the third.
The Norcross, Ga.-based company (BLUD : NASDAQ) reported net income for its fiscal first quarter ended Aug. 31 of $12.7 million, or 18 cents a share, vs. $8 million, or 11 cents a share, in the same quarter a year earlier. Revenue rose to $51 million from $42.4 million. The number of outstanding shares stood at 70.2 million at the end of the latest quarter vs. 71.6 million the year before. The effect of currency added $600,000 to the sales results.

Analysts had been looking for a per-share profit of 17 cents on revenue of $49 million, according to Thomson First Call.
Sales of reagent products using the company's Capture technology were up 16% at $9.2 million; those not using the Capture technology rose 20% to $31.1 million year-over-year.
Instrument sales jumped 57% to $3.3 million.
Immucor said that as of as of Aug. 31, it had received 386 purchase orders for its automated blood test instrument know as Galileo.
A new version of the diagnostic machine, called Galileo Echo, is now expected to be launched in the United States and Europe in fourth quarter, the company said. Immucor had previously forecast it would be launched in its fiscal third quarter.

"This [fourth-quarter] expected launch date is dependent on Food and Drug Administration clearance in the United States and assumes our submission to the FDA is made by the third quarter of fiscal 2007," Chief Executive Gioacchino De Chirico said in a statement. The new forecast launch date also assumes clearance is granted within 90 days of the FDA submission, he said.
Robert Baird & Co. analyst Quintin Lai said the difference is important because once the Echo is launched it's expected to have "very robust adoption."
"So the sooner it gets launched, the sooner it can help boost cost sales," Lai said.

Shares of Immucor , which had closed the regular session with a more than 6% gain at $23.34, fell to $22.85 in late dealings.