NEW HAMPTON, N.Y., Feb. 24, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Balchem Corporation (Nasdaq:BCPC) reported as follows (unaudited) for the period ended December 31, 2008.
($000 Omitted Except for Net Earnings per Share)
For the Three Months Ended December 31,
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2008 2007
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Net sales $ 54,053 $ 53,733
Gross profit 13,432 12,398
Operating expenses 5,954 5,816
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Earnings from operations 7,478 6,582
Other expense (175) (206)
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Earnings before income tax expense 7,303 6,376
Income tax expense 2,411 2,221
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Net earnings $ 4,892 $ 4,155
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Basic net earnings per common share $ 0.27 $ 0.23
Diluted net earnings per common share $ 0.26 $ 0.22
Shares used in the calculation of diluted
net earnings per common share 19,094 18,811
For the Twelve Months Ended December 31,
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2008 2007
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Net sales $ 232,050 $ 176,201
Gross profit 52,578 46,930
Operating expenses 23,230 21,024
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Earnings from operations 29,348 25,906
Other expense (917) (1,077)
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Earnings before income tax expense 28,431 24,829
Income tax expense 9,381 8,711
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Net earnings $ 19,050 $ 16,118
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Basic net earnings per common share $ 1.06 $ 0.91
Diluted net earnings per common share $ 1.00 $ 0.87
Shares used in the calculation of diluted
net earnings per common share 19,014 18,611
Record Fourth Quarter Results for Sales and Earnings
Record net sales of $54.1 million were achieved for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2008, an increase of approximately 1% above the $53.7 million result of the prior year comparable quarter. The company achieved record net earnings for the quarter of $4.9 million, an increase of $0.7 million, or 17.7%. The $4.9 million generated diluted net earnings of $0.26 per common share versus $0.22 per common share for the prior year comparable period, an increase of 18.2%.
Detailing this fourth quarter of 2008, the Animal Nutrition and Health segment achieved quarterly sales of $37.2 million, an increase of $0.8 million, or 2.3%, over the prior year quarter. Within this segment, the specialty animal nutrition and health products, targeted predominantly for ruminant animals, realized approximately 11.1% growth over the 2007 fourth quarter results with continued strong sales of Reashure(r) and Nitroshure(r), in addition to new sales generated from our initial launch of AminoShure(tm)-L., a rumen protected lysine designed to deliver consistent lysine levels and enhance amino acid nutrient availability to dairy cows. Feed grade choline and industrial derivatives grew approximately 1.0% over the prior year quarter, as industrial derivative increases were partially offset by a slight decline in feed grade choline, particularly into the poultry markets. We continued to experience hurricane-related raw material supply chain disruptions until late in the fourth quarter, which slowed our ability to produce, hence sell product into certain international markets. However, earnings from operations for this entire ANH segment did increase to $2.9 million as compared to $1.8 million in the prior year comparable quarter, largely due to favorable product mix in addition to reductions in the cost of certain petro-chemical commodities used to manufacture choline and derivatives.
Sales of the Food, Pharma and Nutrition segment were $7.6 million, a decrease of 15.7% or $1.4 million from the prior year comparable quarter.
