Shares of Invitrogen Corp. dropped Friday after the company reported second-quarter profit and revenue below Wall Street expectations.


The stock dropped $4.38, or 7 percent, to $57.95 on the Nasdaq in midday trading. Shares reached a new 52-week low of $56.60 before regaining some ground as trading volume surged to more than five times its average three-month volume.

Late Thursday, the advanced lab research equipment and services company said it earned $19.7 million, marking a 32 percent increase in profit. The company's earnings per share excluding items but including a 15 cent charge on stock option expenses totaled 75 cents, but analysts expected those results to reach 85 cents per share. Revenue of $314 million, a slight increase, also missed the mark, with analysts expecting $319.7 million.

The move sparked reaction from analysts Friday, with many reaffirming positive positions for the company, but reducing price targets considering the results. The reason for the missed revenue targets, several said, was a drop in the company's bioproduction segment on falling prices and flat sales. The segment includes products used for testing in clinical trials and biologic products for use in clinical trials.

UBS Investment Research analyst Derik De Bruin reaffirmed a "Buy" rating for the company, but reduced his price target to $75 from $82.

"Despite the lumps, end-markets are solid, and we remain buyers of Invitrogen shares, especially on weakness," he wrote in a note to investors.

Aside from the drop in one segment, results were generally on target, he said, and the company's core business is intact.

Also, the company reduced its sales and revenue guidance for 2006, citing the flat sales in its Bioproduction segment, which are expected to drop another 50 percent in 2007. But a $500 million share buyback program, De Bruin said, could provide near-term support to boost the company's earnings per share.

Baird U.S. Equity Research analyst Quintin J. Lai reaffirmed his "Outperform" rating, but also lowered his price target to $75 from $80. He said the company will most likely spend the remainder of the year focusing on the core growth of its cell culture systems, complete the integration of recent acquisitions and realign its operating costs structure to match lower expectations.

Also, he wrote in a note to investors, the company will most likely back off of large acquisitions in the near-term.

"We expect the stock to be under pressure today as it enters the realm of value investors," he wrote.

ThinkEquity Partners analyst David Lo lowered his rating to "Accumulate" from "Buy" and his price target from $77 to $72, citing near-term concerns.

"We continue to view Invitrogen as one of the premier life science research and development tools companies," he wrote.

But near-term "growing pains" include ordering and shipment problems within the Biodiscovery segment that will likely be worked out when the company opens a facility in Europe in early 2007.