With testing volumes up 3.8 percent over the first quarter of 2008, LabCorp’s revenues for the first quarter of this year rose 4.8 percent to $1.16 billion. The Burlington, N.C.-based lab testing company’s net earnings came in at $132.8 million, an increase of almost 2 percent compared to the same quarter in 2008.

These strong results were also driven by the healthy growth of the company’s esoteric business. Total esoteric revenues were up 9 percent compared to a year ago (when esoteric revenues were up 4 percent), with volumes up 9 percent. “Recall that in the midst of the economic downturn, the company shifted its sales focus to specialty physicians (who order more esoteric tests); this strategy appears to be paying off and has helped offset some of the deterioration in the base business,” wrote William Blair & Company (Chicago) analyst Amanda Murphy in a research note following the release of these earnings. “In our view, strength in the company’s esoteric franchise has contributed to LabCorp’s ability to maintain respectable organic volume growth despite the economic downturn (perhaps outperforming the industry as a whole in this metric).”

For more on this and other first quarter earnings news, please read the June issue of Laboratory Industry Report.