Heska Corporation of Loveland, Colo., which sells advanced veterinary diagnostic and other specialty veterinary products, reported fourth-quarter net income of $460 thousand or $0.01 per share, compared with a net loss of $1.9 million or $0.04 per share in the year-ago period. The company reported fourth-quarter net revenue in core companion animal health products of $17.4 million, a 6 percent increase from the year-ago period. Heska cited its heartworm-related products as a reason for the increase. For the 12-month period ended Dec. 31, 2009, the company reported revenue for this category of $75.7 million, compared with net revenue of $81.7 million in the year-ago period. For the year, Heska reported more than $4 million in operating income - the second best result in company history, despite a challenging economic environment, said Robert Grieve, Heska’s chairman and CEO. “In the fourth quarter of 2009, we produced revenue growth in both of our operating segments, increased our gross margin and decreased our operating expenses compared to the fourth quarter of 2008,” Grieve said. “We also placed our first Dri-Chem 7000 Veterinary Chemistry Analyzers with our customers in the fourth quarter of 2009.” The company continues to be pleased with customer interest in this new product, he said, which represents a line extension in its chemistry offering and is the fastest multi-patient clinical chemistry analyzer available to the veterinary in-clinic market. “We also are excited by the prospects for another new product in 2010, the VitalPath Blood Gas and Electrolyte Analyzer, which we expect to begin shipping to our customers in the near future,” he said. <HOME>
