According to the quarter 4 brief of PerkinElmer Inc. (NYSE:PKI), the company expects modest increases in R&D spending throughout 2015 as it continues to invest in innovative new product development. Rob Friel, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer said, "First of all, from our perspective, I think we feel pretty good about the capability we have to continue to do acquisitions, and potentially buy back share as well. I think our slight preference is to do both on acquisitions that add good capability, both from a technology and organizational capability.

To the extent we can't find appropriate assets or the valuations are challenging, we would buy back stock."