Why Alere Inc Shares Are Rapidly Moving Lower

What: Shares of Alere , a company focused on rapid diagnostic testing, were down more than 11% in early morning trading on much heavier than normal volume after the company reported its third-quarter earnings.

So what:Revenue for the quarter was $602 million, which was a 7.3% decrease from the year-ago period, though if you strip out currency effects sales were down a more modest 1.7%. Non-GAAP net income for the quarter was $48.3 million, or $0.54 per share.

While the company did managed to meet expectations on the top-line, profits didn't follow suit and came up $0.07 below what analysts were looking for.

In addition, when you look at each individual business segment, the results do not get any prettier, as nearly every segment took a hit during the quarter.

Source: Alere

For the full year, the company is now forecasting revenue to fall between$2.48 billion to $2.50 billion and for Non-GAAP earnings per share to land between $2.20 to $2.25. Both of those numbers are also a bit shy of the $2.57 billion and $2.42 per share, respectively, that the market is expecting.

The lower than hoped for third-quarter profit mixed with a disappointing outlook appear to be the primary causes of the shares decline today.

Now what:In the press release,Namal Nawana, Alere's CEO, stated:

Nawana did state that despite the challenges, he believes that there are reasons to be optimistic about the future. The company recently launched the Alere i, a device used to rapidly detect infectious diseases like influenza A & B, noting that the produced revenue of $5 million in the third quarter. In addition, if you look beyond its pain management products, overall Toxicology revenue would have grown by 6% during the third quarter.

While there certainly could be reasons to be hopeful here, I'm not the type of investor that likes to buy into a company with declining revenue, so until Alere shows it can move its top-line in the right direction I'm happy to take a pass.

The article Why Alere Inc Shares Are Rapidly Moving Lower originally appeared on Fool.com.

Brian Feroldi has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.