A stronger market for its diagnostic systems and an emphasis on sales and marketing sent Angeion Corp.‘s (NSDQ:ANGN) fourth-quarter earnings into the black.
It’s been a rough year (actually, several years) for the company, which survived the threat of a proxy battle and the termination of its CFO, but credit Angeion for ending on a strong note.
The St. Paul, Minnesota-based company posted fourth-quarter profits of $400,000, or 10 cents per diluted share, compared with a loss of $573,000, or 14 cents per diluted share, during the same period last year. Revenues jumped 28 percent to $8.5 million.
“In addition to the effectiveness of our sales and marketing efforts, we believe a modest improvement in general market conditions contributed to our stronger fourth-quarter and fiscal year-end results,” CEO Rodney Young said in prepared remarks.
In this case, “stronger” didn’t mean “profitable.” While Angeion’s bottom line for 2010 did improve, the company still lost $816,000, which is better than last year’s $1.6 million loss.
Since emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2002, the company has struggled. Angeion, which makes and sells cardiorespiratory diagnostic devices under the brand names MedGraphics and New Leaf, has lost money for three consecutive years.
Last month, the company announced that Young would step down as CEO and be replaced by Phil Smith in January. Smith has worked as the CEO of DGIMed Ortho, a Minnetonka, Minn.-based early stage orthopedics company, since 2008.
