Earnings Labs

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (TMO)

Q3 2013 Earnings Call· Wed, Oct 23, 2013

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Thermo Fisher Scientific 2013 Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. I would like to introduce our moderator for the call, Mr. Kenneth Apicerno, Vice President, Investor Relations. Mr. Apicerno, you may begin the call.

Kenneth J. Apicerno

Analyst

Thank you. Good morning, and thank you for joining us. On the call with me today is Marc Casper, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Pete Wilver, our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Please note this call is being webcast live and will be archived on the Investors section of our website thermofisher.com under the heading Webcasts & Presentations until November 22, 2013. A copy of the press release of our 2013 third quarter earnings and future expectations is available on our website under the heading Financial Results. So before we begin, let me briefly cover our Safe Harbor statement. Various remarks that we may make about the company's future expectations, plans and prospects constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the Safe Harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including those discussed in the company's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 29, 2013, under the caption, Risk Factors, which is on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available in the Investors section of our website under the heading SEC Filings. While we may elect to update forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we specifically disclaim any obligation to do so even if our estimates change. Therefore, you should not rely on these forward-looking statements as representing our views as of any date subsequent to today. Also during the call today, we'll be referring to certain financial measures not prepared in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles or GAAP. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures is available in the press release of our third quarter 2013 earnings and future expectations and also in the Investors section of our website under the heading Financial Information. So with that, I'll now turn the call over to Marc.

Marc N. Casper

Analyst · ISI Group

Thanks, Ken. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us today for our third quarter earnings call. I'm pleased to report that we executed well to deliver strong bottom line performance again this quarter, continuing the excellent growth momentum we've had all year. In a challenging market environment, we delivered 2% organic growth, which keeps us on track to achieve our full year guidance. Our bottom line results are a testament to our operational discipline and our ability to deliver strong earnings growth. With 3 quarters of the year behind us, I'm confident that we'll achieve the growth goals we laid out for 2013. With that, let's move into the highlights from the quarter, starting with the financials. Our revenue and adjusted EPS were both third quarter records. Reported revenue grew 3%, and adjusted EPS rose 9%. Turning to operating income. Our adjusted operating income grew 8%, and adjusted operating margin was a particular bright spot, with 70 basis points of expansion. Pete will go through the details behind our strong operating performance in the quarter, but as you know, we're always driving productivity across our businesses. We use our PPI Business System to improve our processes, so we can deliver the best products and services to our customers as efficiently as possible. This strengthens our competitive position and strengthens our bottom line. Let me take a moment now to talk about our performance with the current market environment as the backdrop. At a macro level, we've generally seen a continuation of the market conditions we've experienced all year. I'll give you some color on the performance by our 4 key end markets. Starting with academic and government, because it's probably top of mind, this end market was somewhat softer in Q3, given the environment in the U.S. As a result…

Peter M. Wilver

Analyst · Bank of America

Thanks, Marc. Good morning, everyone. As I've done in the past, I'll start with an overview of our financial performance for the total company, provide some color on each of our 3 segments, briefly review the status of our financing activities related to the Life Technologies acquisition, and then conclude with some color on our updated 2013 guidance. As you saw in our press release and heard from Marc, we delivered a solid quarter, resulting in a 9% increase in adjusted EPS to $1.30. GAAP EPS in Q3 was $0.86, also up 9% from $0.79 in Q3 last year. Looking at the top line, Q3 total revenue increased 3% year-over-year, and we delivered 2% organic growth. Q3 reported revenue includes 1% growth from acquisitions and a nominal negative impact from foreign exchange. Although the revenue impact of FX in the quarter was minimal, similar to the past few quarters, the mix of currencies, including the weakening of the Japanese yen, drove a significant negative impact on earnings. This resulted in about 40 basis points of adjusted operating margin dilution and $0.03 or 2% of adjusted EPS dilution year-over-year in the quarter. In terms of orders, we've returned to growth in our backlog, with bookings slightly exceeding revenue in the quarter. By geography, North America declined slightly. Europe grew in the low single digits. And consistent with previous quarters, Asia Pacific grew in the high single digits, with China once again delivering very strong growth of 20%. Rest of world grew over 20%, primarily driven by Latin America. Looking at our operational performance, Q3 adjusted operating income was up 8%, and we delivered very strong adjusted operating margin of 19.4%, up 70 basis points from the prior year. Our adjusted operating margin expansion was driven by very strong contribution from our…

Kenneth J. Apicerno

Analyst

Okay, thanks, Pete. Shannon, we're ready to take questions.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Ross Muken of ISI Group.

Ross Muken - ISI Group Inc., Research Division

Analyst · ISI Group

So maybe, Marc, just digging in a little bit on the markets, particularly on the Analytical Tech business, how would you sort of characterize the pacing of orders or pacing of revenues in the quarter in some of the more short-cycle businesses? And in some of the areas where you had weakness, did things get incrementally better at any point, did they stay relatively stable? I'm just trying to get a sense for the jump-off point relative to sort of what we've seen in the macro, which is maybe a modest improvement in some of the subsectors.

Marc N. Casper

Analyst · ISI Group

Yes, so -- Ross, thank you for the question. Let me focus just on the Analytical Technologies, which is where you focused the question. So within that, we have our largest exposure to core industrial businesses -- or markets, and for us, that's most dependent on things like commodity materials. We didn't see any change to the quarter in terms of patterns, so it continues to be a soft market. It's been soft all year. So that's the kind of the industrial portion of that business. When you look at within that same segment, we also have our mass spectrometry and chromatography businesses, and our mass spectrometry business had an outstanding quarter, and our liquid chromatography business was very, very strong as well. So there's a lot of details within that portfolio, but we didn't see a lot of change month-to-month. There was more industrials very soft, but areas that you would expect Thermo Fisher to continue to gain share, things like life science, mass spec and HPLC, that continues to be consistent.

Ross Muken - ISI Group Inc., Research Division

Analyst · ISI Group

And maybe just from a competitive perspective, it's always tough to tease out relative growth rates amongst the peers just because the businesses differ so much. What I found interesting on my last Asia trip was a lot of your competitors were saying how harder -- how much harder it is to compete against Thermo today than 12 months, 24, 36 months ago. Where do you feel like you're seeing the most success of sort of the integrated strategy? Where is the channel having the most impact? I'm just curious, across the business, it seems like that momentum has increased. Where do you feel like we're actually seeing it in the numbers, although, obviously, it's tough to tease out in the totals?

Marc N. Casper

Analyst · ISI Group

All right. So China's been growing consistently in that 20% range for us now for quite a number of quarters. We have a very integrated strategy, right? So because of our scale, we believe that we're able to put the best people on board, which allows us to execute, in a way, a harder strategy, but that strategy has manufacturing facilities that are geared towards the local market. I mean, that's why I picked out the Chinese CDC, right, which is, in this particular order, they wanted just local manufactured products, right, and the reality is we were able to do that, right, big order. Our customers want some degree of tailoring of our global products to meet their specific needs, which is why our China technology center exists. Environmentally, you get off the airplane in China, you know that there's air quality issues, right? You don't literally have to even -- you can see it when you're landing, right, which is why our business is globally headquartered there for air monitoring. So when you look at it, we have broad breadth -- broad-range strength in the market, and we're using our scale to create a really positive customer experience. Our executive team spends an enormous amount of time in China. I was there in September. I'm going back next week. The rest of the -- the rest of my direct reports do the same thing because the government is very important to decision-making, and building those strong relationships is an advantage, and scale matters. Little companies just don't have the same access as an industry leader has, and we're trying to take that to the next level every time.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from Jon Groberg of Macquarie.

Jonathan P. Groberg - Macquarie Research

Analyst · Macquarie

Congratulations on another really remarkable quarter from an adjusted EPS and margin standpoint. And, Marc, I just want to focus on that for a second. So if I look back over the last -- just looking at this year more on an annual basis -- I know we're only 3 quarters through, but if you look back kind of to 2011, 2012, 2013, you're kind of in that 2.5% to 3.5% organic growth. But if I look at this year, you're doing 40 bps, 40 to 50 bps of operating margin expansion, that's not including the medical device tax, which probably gives you another 20 bps, the unfavorable FX that Pete mentioned. So I'm just curious, if that's kind of the realm of growth that we're in, say, over the next year or 2, you're still in that 2.5% to 3.5%, is that still -- is that still feasible, what you're doing there? Do you feel like you're really starving the organization some? And I mean, I'm just trying to think about kind of the levers that you feel like you still have to pull as if the macro doesn't really improve that much.

Marc N. Casper

Analyst · Macquarie

Jon, it's a great question right? So we have a very strong operating system at the company, our PPI Business System. And our 39,000 colleagues are constantly trying to make the company better every day and more efficient. And as we went into this period of a muted recovery coming out of the recession, our team has done a very good job of streamlining the organization, eliminating waste, so that we can fund R&D and our significant expansion in emerging markets. So we're not starving the organization in terms of a bright future. In fact, I've spent most of my comments today actually on new product launches, and I have to cut them short, otherwise, we'd run out of time for Q&A, right? So we're spending for a bright future, and we feel like we're taking out the appropriate costs to deliver very strong returns for our shareholders. Looking forward, if we continue in this muted growth environment, we believe the ability to drive good bottom line performance is clearly something that we have the skill to do and the ability to do. And as we get into our guidance process for 2014 early in the year, we'll articulate our plans. But we've lived through periods of rapid growth, we've lived through a couple of recessions, and we've lived through a period of muted growth. And pretty consistent to that is we've been very focused on driving bottom line improvement.

Jonathan P. Groberg - Macquarie Research

Analyst · Macquarie

Just, as a quick follow-up to that, just as a point of clarification, as you mentioned with Life, you're getting closer to day 1 planning in place, getting closer to that, potentially closing that acquisition. As you go and talk to investors, is the number that you talk -- I'm trying to think about -- do we think about the core Thermo business still getting the margin expansion that you would get otherwise, and then layering on top of that what you expect from Life?

Marc N. Casper

Analyst · Macquarie

Yes, I mean, at a simplistic level, yes. I mean, what we'll do is, when we give out the -- when we close the transaction and give out the guidance, we'll bridge the details enough so that everyone can understand what we're doing. But our base business without Life continues to have to generate good earnings growth. And then obviously, you're going to get the positive synergies and accretions from that acquisition as well on top of that.

Operator

Operator

Our next question is from Daniel Brennan of Morgan Stanley.

Daniel Brennan - Morgan Stanley, Research Division

Analyst · Morgan Stanley

Marc, I wanted to dig in a little on China, maybe just get some color there. Within your China business, can you give us some sense of how the different segments did within China? And specifically, like on the more industrial side of your business, have you seen any change, either for the better or for the worse?

Marc N. Casper

Analyst · Morgan Stanley

So industrial -- core industrial continues to be soft in China. So that's going to affect the Analytical Technologies segment the most. There were certainly bright spots on the applied markets in China, particularly air quality continues to be strong in that market. Health care continues to be a good growth driver as well, so Specialty Diagnostics will benefit from that. And then mass spec had a very, very strong quarter in China as well. So that gives you a little bit of a flavor. Headwinds continue in industrial, the rest of the business performing solidly.

Daniel Brennan - Morgan Stanley, Research Division

Analyst · Morgan Stanley

Okay. And the same maybe on the LPS side, which you had pretty strong growth certainly this quarter, I know you highlighted the clinical trial logistics business. Can you -- could you just break it down like how the channel business converts to clinical trials business? And on the channel side, is this share gains or you're just growing in line with the market right now?

Marc N. Casper

Analyst · Morgan Stanley

We had good, good momentum in our channel business in the quarter. We had very strong momentum in our clinical trials logistics business. I would say that our share in our channel business, we probably grew share slightly in the quarter, and that's not growing hugely different from the rate of the market but probably a little faster than the market.

Operator

Operator

Our next question is from Derik De Bruin of Bank of America.

Derik De Bruin - BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division

Analyst · Bank of America

So just -- I don't know if you are going to answer this, but I'm going to ask you anyway. Obviously, there's been a lot of FX moves since you guys first announced the Life transaction and some of your accretion expectations for that transaction. Can you -- are you in the point where you're just can sort of update sort of what your expectations are for that just considering [ph] -- how the currencies have moved all over the place?

Peter M. Wilver

Analyst · Bank of America

Yes. Certainly, there's a lot of things that have changed since April 15 on the Life acquisition pluses and minuses, and so I'm not going to answer one piece of that equation. So we'll give you updated guidance once we close the transaction.

Derik De Bruin - BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division

Analyst · Bank of America

Great. And I guess, speaking of the U.S. academic markets and some of the uncertainty there, just like what's your sort of working assumption for that customer segment as we sort of look about -- look into Q4? And if you sort of look into 2014, I mean, are you expecting that segment of the market to be flattish? I'm just curious in terms of what your current planning is.

Marc N. Casper

Analyst · Bank of America

So let me limit it to what we saw and a little bit on Q4. We'll deal with all of '14 holistically through our guidance process. Let me start -- longer term, as you take it out of years, I don't think we're -- our view on academic and government continues to be the same, which is going to be a low single-digit growth market for us in the long term, not so different than what we talked about at the Analyst Meeting. I don't think there's a big change even with all the stuff going on in Washington. So when I look at the performance in academic and government, year-to-date, we're down low single digits, I mean, basically. And our view for the fourth quarter is fairly similar to that environment. Basically, we're not assuming a particularly material effect from the government shutdown. Obviously, a little bit of a headwind. But we also know that sequestration is certainly with us for the rest of the year, so that means that -- any optimism that maybe sequestration would go away this year, that fades, from customers' viewpoint. So similar to Q3 is how we're thinking about it.

Operator

Operator

Our next question is from Tycho Peterson of JPMorgan. Tycho W. Peterson - JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division: First one, just on pharma and some of the trends. Obviously, you guys have had really good momentum there. Can you maybe just talk about the sustainability of those trends? And the deals seem to be getting a bit bigger. At the same time, we see the Merck news about cutting R&D. So maybe just talk on your view on the pharma business for the next quarter or 2.

Marc N. Casper

Analyst · JPMorgan

If we look back now over the past few years, we've been growing well above the company average share. We're clearly gaining share. Our customers are benefiting from the productivity that we deliver for them, and we feel like our value proposition is very well suited to help customers navigate a tough environment. So we never like any of our customers to be struggling, but what I can tell you is that we're on the phone the minute those issues happen, and we're they're coming out with new ways of helping them navigate those environments. Our clinical trials logistics business, obviously, has done very well for quite some time. And the reason for that is we're just substantially lower cost than the in-house capability, and our quality and performance metrics are truly outstanding, so customers are getting comparable or better quality at a lower cost. And as customers are tightening their belts, they've been driving more and more business to us, and we've been cross-selling across the portfolio as well. So our view is that it's our job to help our customers be successful, and we'll continue to focus on navigating that environment going forward. Tycho W. Peterson - JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division: Okay. And then just a follow-up on mass spec. You spend a lot of time talking about the new products. Can you talk about the degree to which those new products are seeing uptick in the clinical segments? I mean I think that was one of the things out of ASMS was just mass spec moving more into the clinical side. And then can you also just talk about competitive dynamics to the extent you think you're taking share, both in mass spec and then LC with the Dionex addition?

Marc N. Casper

Analyst · JPMorgan

Yes. So for -- clinical research is growing in importance for us. It's still early in terms of the adoption for us, but it's -- but we're seeing some of it in clinical research. And the new products have done very well. We started shipping the products in the quarter. The uptake has been very strong. And one of the things I'm very passionate about is that the Q Exactive, which is -- we launched a couple years back, just had a fabulous quarter, right? So we launched another high-end system, but we don't lose any momentum in the Q Exactive. I wasn't expecting to lose any momentum because it serves a different market, but it's nice to actually see the facts play out that way in terms of performance. HPLC was very strong for us, so I feel good about how our teams are executing around the world.

Operator

Operator

Our next question is from Doug Schenkel of Cowen and Company.

Douglas Schenkel - Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division

Analyst · Cowen and Company

One thing I'm having a hard time reconciling is better-than-expected LPS growth in the quarter and the negative commentary on the academic/government end market in the U.S. I say this because, in the past, you pointed out that LPS was the segment you thought would get most impacted by U.S. government weakness. And I believe that's what was at least previously embedded in guidance. So the question is, has there been a notable source or are there notable sources of upside within LPS outside academic/government that have exceeded your expectations? And then is the offset that academic/government weakness has been maybe a bit more pronounced in either AT or maybe even Specialty Diagnostics than you expected?

Marc N. Casper

Analyst · Cowen and Company

This is a great question. So when you look at the academic and government performance, you see the pressures in AT and in LPS. But the consumable mix is the vast majority in LP&S (sic) [LPS], so it's more muted, the effect, than the capital equipment effect that you would see in AT. So you see some pressures, Doug, in the Lab Products and Services, but you see a lot more pressure on more the routine capital equipment, which is in the other segments, so that's part of it. The other thing is because pharma is overrepresented, it's a good thing, in Lab Products and Services, that's really been a very strong driver of that. Because you have a clinical trials logistics business there, our channel business, our lab consumables, things that are very pharma and biotech focused, we have a disproportionate weighting in that segment. So I think those factors would say why does the performance consistently look very strong in Lab Products and Services.

Douglas Schenkel - Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division

Analyst · Cowen and Company

Okay, that's helpful. So SG&A spend was a bit lower than, I think, some of us expected. This is probably largely because of mix and some progress you're making on the PPI side. That said, I am wondering if some of this is also a function of planning for the closure of the Life deal. You guys have been executing well to plan this year, but I think it's also fair to say that Life's performance has been a bit disappointing relative to expectations. So point here is some of the SG&A pullback related to what's been going on in Life as you move towards the closure of the deal.

Peter M. Wilver

Analyst · Cowen and Company

Yes, so in terms of the SG&A, we certainly are still continuing to make investments in the business. The leverage we're getting in SG&A year-over-year is really about the restructuring activity that we're doing and PPI activities that drive costs out of the system. So they're really not any material impact related to planning for Life. Obviously, there's a very small piece of our company that's really directly overlapping with Life in terms of the cost base, so that's not anything that's impacting the numbers.

Douglas Schenkel - Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division

Analyst · Cowen and Company

Okay. And if I could sneak in one more.

Marc N. Casper

Analyst · Cowen and Company

Sure.

Douglas Schenkel - Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division

Analyst · Cowen and Company

You guys continue to do really well in APAC and rest of world, and you recognize strong underlying demand in these markets. But across most end markets in these geographies, it does appear like you're outperforming many of your peers. I guess, what I'm wondering is, how much of your outperformance in these geographies versus your competitors is attributable to you having a better reach than your competitors in your opinion? And are there opportunities you're actively looking at where you could repeat what you did with China, environmental? And more generally, are you thinking it might make sense, given really what have become kind of long-standing trends in these geographies to accelerate really reallocation of sources to areas, say, in Latin America or certain areas of APAC?

Marc N. Casper

Analyst · Cowen and Company

Sure. So Doug, thanks. A few things. One of -- I'll mention one more time, this the China CDC order in lab equipment. We moved one of our business units, actually a large one, the headquarters to China about a year ago basically to position this business for the very strong funding environment that's likely to continue for many years in China. So we're always looking at our portfolio around the world and trying to optimize it to position us for growth. I think the combination with Life Technologies actually gives us some interesting opportunities, where the markets in some other countries might have been just a little subscale for us to really want to put the infrastructure in place to build a very, very superior experience for our customers but the combined entity is worth doing. So I think when you get down to the South Koreas of the world, parts of Southeast Asia, we're going to be able to replicate the very strong capabilities we have in China in some of these markets, not at the same level of cost or investment but just because we have enough scale that we're going to get a quick enough return to do it. So I actually think the combination will position us for better growth over time.

Operator

Operator

Our next question is from Isaac Ro of Goldman Sachs.

Isaac Ro - Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division

Analyst · Goldman Sachs

I wanted to start maybe with a bigger concern thought on just gaining wallet share across 2 of your specific end markets, one being academic and pharma and the second being pharma. And the reason I ask is you're probably looking at a period of protracted slowdowns in funding in academia, there's been, obviously, some continued cuts in the pharma side. So just thematically, if you look at the combined portfolio you have and the competitive advantage you have with channel, are there a couple of new initiatives you can specifically point to where you think you think you can use the franchise to gain wallet share in a slower growth environment?

Marc N. Casper

Analyst · Goldman Sachs

Yes. So, Isaac, obviously, we've been doing this with pharmaceutical customers for quite some time, and we'll continue to do that. So we think that a -- that type of requirement of productivity from our customers is always a good opportunity and the fact that we have a stronger offering in production chemicals now, and when we close Life Technologies, an even stronger offering in some of the life sciences research reagents, it will give us more opportunities to go to those customers and bring new value and help them navigate the environment. On the academic and government side or academic side, decision-making is a little bit different, but the economic needs are the same, right? You're dealing more at the lab level than the enterprise level. And I had the chance to meet with a number of academic customers this week, actually, here in Boston because of ASH. She[ph]is here. And they love the Thermo Fisher value proposition, how we can help navigate what's a tough environment for them. So it's more at the micro level, but we can help them save money, so they can continue doing the important research they're doing, and then it's a great opportunity.

Isaac Ro - Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division

Analyst · Goldman Sachs

Okay. And then just a tactical question. You guys called out in your prepared comments a couple times you've strengthened the transplant diagnostics business. So I'm wondering, should we expect that kind of pacing to continue through the balance of this year? How do you feel about the prospects over the next 12 months, just given that you have the asset under your control for full 12 months now? And do you think you can maybe accelerate the growth from here? Just trying to gauge expectations for that specific business.

Marc N. Casper

Analyst · Goldman Sachs

As you look -- we had assumed kind of mid-single-digit growth when we announced the acquisition. It's been growing at the high single digits. We think the business has good momentum. It'll start to show up in our organic growth. Not a huge business, but it's a nice business that the integration has gone incredibly smoothly, and the team's done a great job. So we're going to -- we'll try to maximize the top line performance that we can get out of it. And certainly, that's embedded in our guidance as we set that out for 2014.

Operator

Operator

Our next question is from Paul Knight of Janney Capital Markets.

Paul Richard Knight - Janney Montgomery Scott LLC, Research Division

Analyst · Janney Capital Markets

When you look at the analytical instruments business, did we go into a double dip or what happened in 3Q while the industrial market-- did it delay or what do think the color is there?

Marc N. Casper

Analyst · Janney Capital Markets

Industrial, I don't think it changed much. Basically, we just haven't seen an upswing, right? And when you get into all of the details, basically, it's the core industrial, the commodity material markets continue to be very soft. That's where we have our largest mix of that part of the business. Applied markets, clearly, there's some nice pockets of strength, so I didn't really see a big change in the third quarter, Paul.

Paul Richard Knight - Janney Montgomery Scott LLC, Research Division

Analyst · Janney Capital Markets

And that's what, spectroscopy, gas chromatography, those kind of things?

Marc N. Casper

Analyst · Janney Capital Markets

Yes, I mean, you have your chemical analysis, instruments, your process instruments, molecular spectroscopy, those types of instruments would be most affected. Portable instruments would be another one that would be affected by the economic downturn.

Paul Richard Knight - Janney Montgomery Scott LLC, Research Division

Analyst · Janney Capital Markets

And then, Marc, these PMI readings have been pretty strong at least until -- we don't know what this month is, but PMI has been good. I mean, if PMI drives better sales, what do you think the lag factor is, is it -- should it show up this quarter, or should it show up next quarter, what's your experience?

Marc N. Casper

Analyst · Janney Capital Markets

Usually, 2 quarters lag is typically what we see in our business. So we're definitely paying attention to that. That's clearly positive news, but it hasn't sustained yet in terms of orders momentum at this point.

Paul Richard Knight - Janney Montgomery Scott LLC, Research Division

Analyst · Janney Capital Markets

And last, were you surprised by pharma and biotech in the quarter?

Marc N. Casper

Analyst · Janney Capital Markets

No, it's been incredibly consistent with high single-digit growth now for quite a number of quarters, so the team's doing a good job of executing.

Operator

Operator

Our next question is from Dan Arias of UBS.

Daniel Arias - UBS Investment Bank, Research Division

Analyst · UBS

Marc, maybe on -- another on the industrial markets. How do you feel about where those customers are broadly in their product cycle? Do you feel like if you remove the macro factors from the purchasing, which is in there, you're sort of left with a decent portion of that segment, that's maybe due for a tech upgrade?

Marc N. Casper

Analyst · UBS

Yes, what I would say is that our product portfolio, ourselves internally, is very strong. We've been launching a number of new products. So as customers release funds, we think we're well positioned to capture market share. I think, basically, customers are being cautious right now. And when we get to a period of a little bit more optimism in the customer base, I think we're very well positioned to see an acceleration of growth.

Daniel Arias - UBS Investment Bank, Research Division

Analyst · UBS

And maybe one on diagnostics. What are your thoughts at this point on penetrating the U.S. physician base with the Phadia products that do sell well up in Europe -- well in Europe? Do you feel like, over the near term and the midterm, you have the ability to convert a portion of that market that's kind of like doing prick testing and sort of an antiquated way of going about things?

Marc N. Casper

Analyst · UBS

Yes, I would say that we're expecting to see us building momentum in driving penetration in the U.S. for our allergy products. It's -- we do a lot of doctor -- end doctor visits to explain the technology and do education. And as that education becomes stronger and stronger, we think that we're well positioned to have good growth.

Operator

Operator

Our next question is from Amit Bhalla of Citigroup.

Amit Bhalla - Citigroup Inc, Research Division

Analyst · Citigroup

A question on Lab Products and Services, the revenue side has been quite strong, but what kind of struck me was the operating margin of the business at 14.9%. I've looked back last 2 years or so, and this is probably the highest it's been. You said that productivity is kind of the reason for the op margin expansion. And I was wondering if you could go into some detail about how much headway you still have on op margin expansion in that business.

Peter M. Wilver

Analyst · Citigroup

When you say headway, you mean headroom or?

Amit Bhalla - Citigroup Inc, Research Division

Analyst · Citigroup

Headroom, yes.

Peter M. Wilver

Analyst · Citigroup

Well, I think, obviously, in the Laboratory Products and Services segment, it's a little more challenging to get a margin expansion just because of the mix of self-manufactured versus sourced products. So this is a really strong performance for that quarter, but we still have room to expand margins. I would say, on an annual basis, if we're thinking about 50 to 100 basis points at the company level, you're probably in the 20 to 40 basis points range here in this segment is what you could expect as long as we get mid-single-digit kind of organic growth.

Amit Bhalla - Citigroup Inc, Research Division

Analyst · Citigroup

Okay. And then, second, just in Analytical Technologies, I was wondering if you could give some color on BioProcess Production in the quarter.

Marc N. Casper

Analyst · Citigroup

So we had good growth in BioProcess Production in the quarter, not as strong as the first half, but the pipeline looks incredibly strong. So I would say that it's growing well, well above the company average, and I feel like we're well positioned.

Amit Bhalla - Citigroup Inc, Research Division

Analyst · Citigroup

Anything, Marc, that drove the less-than-strong performance there versus the first half? Any more color you can give?

Marc N. Casper

Analyst · Citigroup

It was actually a strong performance, but we've been growing double digits for a while, and this was more in the mid to high single digits. I don't think there's anything much to it. I looked at the pipeline, and it looks like the next few quarters look strong.

Operator

Operator

Our next question is from Jeff Elliott of Robert W. Baird. Jeffrey T. Elliott - Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division: I was wondering if you could give some more color on Brazil. You said it grew over 20% in that market. Can you talk about what's driving the growth and how sustainable it is?

Marc N. Casper

Analyst · Robert W

Yes, we've had a few good quarters now in a row in Brazil. Our diagnostic business, in particular, is driving good growth in that market. So there had been some changes in the reimbursement and regulatory environment that had put some pressures on that business over the past year or so, and that's clearly subsided. That's been probably the biggest driver. Jeffrey T. Elliott - Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division: And then on the clinical trials logistics business, can you talk about what's driving the growth there? How much of that is shift towards outsourcing versus you adding additional services? And can you update us on the competitive landscape in that market?

Marc N. Casper

Analyst · Robert W

Yes, so it's really about the outsourcing trends, it's what's driving it. And what customers are doing is most of the biopharma customers’ use us in some fashion, but it's the question of how penetrated we are. And for the most part, we have lots of opportunity to increase our share of wallet, if you will. So it's less about new services than it is going from being surplus capacity to being a portion of capacity, to being the sole-source provider of that capacity, and we're seeing more and more customers move towards using us as the sole or primary provider, and that's a great opportunity, and we think we got lots and lots of legs in that strategy in terms of driving growth.

Operator

Operator

Our final question is from Steve Willoughby of Cleveland Research.

Steve Willoughby - Cleveland Research Company

Analyst · Cleveland Research

Two things for you. One, I was wondering if you could just comment on how you're thinking about the 3 different business units and their growth in the fourth quarter as compared to their growth this past quarter. And then secondly, just do you have any early read on what the flu season is looking like? And any thoughts on the impact to the company from that?

Marc N. Casper

Analyst · Cleveland Research

So in terms of the 3 segments, I would say that the fourth quarter would be pretty similar to what we saw in the first 9 months of the year. And, Pete, do you want to comment quickly on flu?

Peter M. Wilver

Analyst · Cleveland Research

Well, in terms of flu, we definitely have a tough comparison in Q4. We had a very strong flu season in 2012. And basically, what's assumed in our guidance right now is that we have kind of an average flu season. We don't have any good insight yet on the strength of the season.

Marc N. Casper

Analyst · Cleveland Research

So let me wrap it up. As we look sitting here in October, we have 3 strong quarters behind us, and we're on track to achieve our growth goals for the year. Life Technologies integration planning is progressing very well. I'm really confident that we'll be in an excellent position going into 2014, and I'm looking forward to updating you early in the year. Thank you, again, for your time this morning and, certainly, for your support of Thermo Fisher Scientific. Thanks, everyone.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference. Thanks for your participation, and have a wonderful day.