Avanos Medical beats the Street in Q2 results

Avanos Medical (NYSE:AVNS) posted second-quarter results yesterday that beat the consensus on Wall Street and increased its sales growth outlook for the rest of 2019.

The Alpharetta, Ga.-based company reported a net loss of -$8 million, or -17¢ per share, on sales of $172.2 million for the three months ended June 30, 2019. At this time last year, Avanos posted a quarterly net profit of $35 million. Sales were up 7% compared with Q2 2018.

Adjusted to exclude one-time items, earnings per share were 28¢, ahead of The Street by 3¢, where analysts were looking for sales of $172 million.

“I’m pleased we delivered sales and earnings in line with our expectations, driven by continued momentum in Coolief and our market-leading chronic care business. Last week, we went live with our new IT system, which is a major catalyst in our cost transformation and will create operating efficiency for our organization going forward,” CEO Joe Woody said in prepared remarks. “We continued to deploy capital to generate shareholder value, by completing the acquisition of NeoMed, Inc. and signing an agreement to acquire Summit Medical Products, a leading developer and manufacturer of electronic infusion pumps, which complements our acute pain business.”

“While we continue to anticipate results will accelerate in the second half, we do expect the headwinds impacting our acute pain business to remain through the balance of the year. Overall, we are on track to achieve our 2019 priorities and we continue to advance our transformation,” said Woody.

The company adjusted its full-year outlook for net sales growth from 6-8% to 8-10%, which includes Game Ready and NeoMed. It also adjusted diluted earnings per share from $1.15-$1.35 to $1.15-$1.25.

Investors reacted by sending AVNS shares down 3.4% to $35.97 apiece today at market open.