Neogen again named to Forbes’ list of Best Small Companies
October 16, 2009
CONTACT: Rod Poland, Director of Corporate Communications, 517.372.9200 |
LANSING, Mich., Oct. 16, 2009 — Forbes Magazine has named Neogen Corporation (Nasdaq: NEOG) to its annual list of the 200 Best Small Companies in America for the eighth time in the last 10 years.
“Small fry got smacked hard in year two of the Great Recession: 42% of the companies in the Russell 2000 small-company index lost money in the last 12 months, versus 22% for those in the S&P 500,” said Forbes’ editors in announcing the list. “Still, enough winners emerged to ease the sector’s overall pain. Rankings are based on earnings growth, sales growth and return on equity in the past 12 months and over five years; we dropped companies with fuzzy accounting or looming legal troubles. ”
To qualify for the list, companies must have annual revenue between $5 million and $750 million, be publicly traded for at least a year, and have a stock price no lower than $5.
“We were very pleased to again be named to Forbes’ list of the 200 Best Small Companies in America,” said Lon Bohannon, Neogen’s president. “It’s an honor to be included among the companies that survived Forbes’ intense scrutiny. Companies recognized this year demonstrated solid growth in revenues and earnings during the worst economic downturn in 80 years.”
In September, Neogen announced that its revenues for the first quarter of FY 2010, which ended Aug. 31, marked the 66th consecutive profitable quarter from operations for the company, and was the 70th of the past 75 quarters when Neogen reported revenue increases as compared with the previous year. Neogen’s first quarter revenues, net income, and earnings per share all represented quarterly records for the 27-year-old company.
Neogen Corporation develops and markets products dedicated to food and animal safety. The company’s Food Safety Division markets dehydrated culture media, and diagnostic test kits to detect foodborne bacteria, natural toxins, genetic modifications, food allergens, drug residues, plant diseases and sanitation concerns. Neogen’s Animal Safety Division markets a complete line of diagnostics, veterinary instruments, veterinary pharmaceuticals, nutritional supplements, disinfectants, and rodenticides.
Category: Earnings