UPDATE: Sigma-Aldrich Beats Q4 Expectations

reported stronger-than-expected earnings for the fourth quarter. The St. Louis, Missouri-based company posted a quarterly profit of $133 million, or $1.11 per share, compared to $131 million, or $1.08 per share, in the year-ago period. Excluding non-recurring items, the company's earnings climbed 12% to $1.14 per share. Its revenue rose 3% to $705 million, while organic sales surged 7%. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $1.09 per share on revenue of $694.62 million. For the fourth quarter, sales of the Research business unit fell 2%, while sales of the Applied business unit rose 7% y/y. Sales of the SAFC Commercial business unit climbed 9% in the quarter. Sigma-Aldrich did not repurchase shares during the fourth quarter. President and CEO Rakesh Sachdev said, "Our three business units, Research, Applied and SAFC, continue to provide market-leading products and services and each business has elevated its customer-centric strategies by responding to the needs of their global, diverse customer bases. This resulted in solid organic sales growth for the year with the fourth quarter of 2014 at 7%, the highest quarterly performance in almost four years." Sigma-Aldrich shares rose 0.07% to close at $138.19 yesterday.