Shares of Abiomed (NSDQ:ABMD) surged nearly 17 percent this morning on Wall Street after the heart pump maker reported its first profitable quarter.

ABMD shares were trading at $16.86 as of about 11 a.m. today as investors reacted to the company’s swing to black ink.

Abiomed posted profits of $601,000, or 2 cents per share, on sales of $29.5 million for the three months ended Sept. 30 – a top-line boost of some 26 percent, compared with losses of $3.2 million, or 9 cents per share, on sales of $23.4 million during the same period last year.

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Adjusted to exclude one-time items, EPS was 9 cents per share, the exact inverse of expectations on The Street, where analysts were looking for adjusted losses of 9 cents per share.

Abiomed further pleased The Street by reinforcing its guidance for the rest of fiscal 2012, saying it expects to boost revenues by 20 percent to 24 percent, to between $120 million and $125 million.

Sales of Abiomed’s flagship Impella device, a tiny pump inserted via catheter to provide cardiac assist to patients with heart failure, were up 40 percent to $24.8 million during the quarter. U.S. Impella sales rose 41 percent to $23.1 million.