Meridian Bioscience: Full-year results to come in at bottom of guidance

More bad news for investors in diagnostic testing company Meridian Bioscience (NASDAQ:VIVO).

The Cincinnati-area company now projects its full-year results to come in at the “lower end” of a range of 68 cents to 71 cents per share, according to a statement. The news comes after Meridian last month pushed its guidance down from its previous expectation, a range of 77 cents to 82 cents.

The company blamed the latest reduced projection on weakness in its life sciences and European diagnostics business units.

Somewhat curiously, the market reacted with a “So what?” The company’s shares were virtually flat Thursday, suggesting that investors had already expected as much (or that investors don’t see 3 cents per share as all that big of a difference.) Meridian’s shares were trading around $17.70 Thursday afternoon.

The company tempered the bad 2011 news with optimistic projections for 2012, so that may have helped avert a sell-off of its shares. Meridian expects diluted earnings per share between 85 cents and 89 cents, and sales between $183 million and $192 million.

“Our ability to grow revenues in fiscal year 2012 is based upon our first-year success and continued optimism from our new, simple molecular platform, illumigene,” CEO John Kraeutler said.

The company expects next year to launch several tests from its illumigene platform. The first is expected to be for group B strep, in early 2012.