BioMerieux

FY sales came in in line, up 10.3% lfl to €4bn and ahead of the company’s guidance (8-10%).

FY operating income rose by 20% to €673m, surpassing management's guidance of 12% to 17% and 4% better than consensus.

A dividend of €0.9 per share was announced, compared to €0.85 per share in 2023.

Guidance 25 a tad soft: Sales growth will stand above 7% and EBIT will grow more than 10%. Note that the low point of the guidance is currently below consensus which could prompt some downgrades.

Stock had a great run and there might be some profit taking on the guidance despite the beat in actual numbers. However, we would say that
1/ The company is guiding probably cautiously as was demonstrated by the 2024 results. Therefore, we are not sure all analysts will actually downgrade their numbers. For example, back on the 10% guided increase, we would have to actually increase our numbers marginally. 
2/ The fundamentals of the company remain sound and the company valuation, while relatively high in absolute (PE25 of 24.2x and PE26 of 21.7x) is actually slightly below the last 10y average and in line with the pre-covid valuation.

In all, should the stock drop as our analyst expects today, we would take that opportunity to buy the name.