Tecan Holdings AG raised its profitability target at the Morgan Stanley 24th Annual Global Healthcare Conference, saying the life sciences automation maker expects to reach a 20% EBITDA margin by 2028, up 400 basis points from its 2025 base.
Chief Executive Officer Monica Manotas said roughly one-third of the margin expansion would come from operating leverage, with the remaining two-thirds driven by cost-out actions under the Rewired transformation program launched earlier this year.
The company reported revenue of $1.08 billion over the trailing twelve months, a 4% decline from a year ago, with EBITDA of $90.55 million. Shares have climbed 67% over the past six months and are trading near their 52-week high of $247.
For the first half of 2025, biopharma—the largest segment—grew at a high-single-digit pace, while diagnostics and medical technology posted mid-single-digit gains. Academic and government sales declined double digits, and China grew mid-single digits. Management cautioned that its largest medical technology customer, which expanded in the first half, is expected to be flat for the full year due to tough comparisons and product transition effects.
Tecan is pursuing a software subscription model for its agentic AI layer built atop the Introspect instrument monitoring platform. Partnerships announced with NVIDIA in May 2025 and Anthropic aim to embed AI capabilities into laboratory workflows. The Anthropic collaboration centers on the Model Hardware Standard protocol, designed to create a communication bridge between lab instruments and AI models.
Supply disruptions at the Cavro business, stemming from a manufacturing move from California to Malaysia, inventory planning errors, component sourcing issues, and supplier relocations, are expected to persist through the second half of 2025.
Manotas emphasized that liquid handling automation penetration remains low, estimating only about 20% of labs use such systems, calling automation “no longer a nice-to-have” but essential. The company exited genomics assets in the first half and said organic investment remains its top priority, with merger-and-acquisition activity reserved for bolt-on deals in existing domains.
On shareholder returns, Tecan has a CHF 120 million share buyback program approximately halfway through and will not accelerate it. The company has paid dividends for 27 consecutive years and yields 1.51%.
