Wall Street once again proved a fickle friend to Abiomed (NSDQ:ABMD), which posted record sales and earnings numbers for its fiscal 1st quarter today but still saw shares slide by nearly 2%.
Unimpressed, investors on The Street sent ABMD shares down 1.6% to $22.61 as of about 3 p.m. today, leaving at least 1 analyst baffled.
Abiomed posted profits of $3.1 million, or 8¢ per share, on sales of $38.8 million for the 3 months ended June 30, for top-line gains of 41.8% and a swing from red to black ink, compared with Q2 2011.
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"We are extremely pleased to report another quarter of record revenue, including acceleration in year-over-year Impella growth," chairman, president & CEO Michael Minogue said in prepared remarks. "We believe the Impella U.S. growth of 61% indicates Impella is becoming the new standard of care in the U.S. for percutaneous circulatory support."
"Impella is now at an annual run rate of approximately $140 million and has grown greater than 30% year-over-year for the 11th straight quarter," Minogue told analysts during a conference call this morning. "The company is off to a fast start this fiscal year, solidifying our position in the industry as one of the fastest growing profitable medical device company. I personally want to thank and congratulate the entire team for our best ever results."
Excluding 1-time items, earning per share shattered analysts’ 3-penny expectations at 16¢ apiece – and still ABMD share prices slipped.
The response on Wall Street, where NASDAQ was down about 0.6% as of 3 p.m., left Morningstar analyst Julie Stralow mystified, according to Investors Business Daily.
"Abiomed appears to be trading on the speculation of an M&A event, rather than strictly on its prospects as a stand-alone entity," Stralow told the website. "If a buyer doesn’t eventually emerge, investors may be disappointed with returns from this level."
Abiomed is expecting to win a nod from the FDA for its next-generation Impella cVAD heart pump, Minogue said on the call. The Impella cVAD in April won CE Mark approval in the European Union, where the medical device company gave the heart pumps away for free.
"We had a successful evaluation with dedicated resources on site for the first 30 Impella cVAD patients in Europe. This concentrated effort will generate rapid data collection, new clinical abstracts and enhance the future training and performance of the product. The lessons learned will be incorporated into our cVAD U.S. controlled launch anticipated in September," Minogue said. "In Europe, we provided the pumps at no charge, lowering our revenue for the quarter but demonstrating the role Europe serves for Abiomed related to both clinical publications and first demand experiences. This European evaluation model will remain in place with the expansion of Impella RP and Symphony products."
Abiomed raised the lower end of its revenue guidance from $152 million-$157 million to $155 million-$157 million, "representing annual growth of 23% to 24%, with worldwide Impella revenues forecast to grow greater than 30%," according to a press release.