Biomet said today that it slashed its 3rd-quarter losses by nearly 80% and boosted sales by 6.6% as the privately-owned orthopedics giant prepares to go back on the stock market.
Warsaw, Ind.-based Biomet posted losses of -$65.9 million on sales of $822.5 million for the 3 months ended Feb. 28. Adjusted to exclude 1-time items, profits rose 13.1% compared with the same period last year, to $107.3 million.
Sales of Biomet’s knee implants were up 8.3% to $ 254.2 million during the quarter and rose 7.7% in the U.S. Hip implant sales were $162.9 million, up 2.8% overall and 4.6% in the U.S., the company said.
Biomet’s earnings are taken as something of a bellwether for the larger orthopedics market; shares of rival ortho players Stryker (NYSE:SYK) rose 0.6% to $82.77 as of 9:40 a.m. and Zimmer (NYSE:ZMH) saw its stock rise 0.8% to $97.36, outpacing slight gains for the Dow, NASDAQ and S&P 500 indices.
"During our fiscal 3rd quarter, we once again delivered balanced constant currency sales growth across our major geographies and our major product categories," president & CEO Jeffrey Binder said in prepared remarks.
Last month Biomet said it’s planning to put itself back on the public market after a 7-year run under private equity ownership.
