Cantel Medical (NYSE:CMD) posted first-quarter results today that beat the consensus forecast on Wall Street.
The Little Falls, N.J.-based company reported profits of $5.8 million, or 14¢ per share, on sales of $257.2 million for the three months ended Oct. 31, 2019, for a bottom-line loss of -70% sales growth of 14% compared with Q1 2019.
Adjusted to exclude one-time items, earnings per share were 65¢, 7¢ ahead of The Street, where analysts were looking for sales of $253.6 million.
“We are pleased to report strong sales and earnings growth this quarter. In dental, organic growth increased 12.0%, while reported sales grew 76.3%, driven by the acquisition of Hu-Friedy which closed late in the quarter. The integration of Hu-Friedy and Crosstex is rapidly underway and we see continued strong growth ahead. In medical, sales increased 5.7% organically, with total reported sales growth of 4.5%, as a result of negative foreign currency headwinds,” president and CEO George Fotiades said in a news release. “This lower than expected performance in medical reflects delayed new products launches and increased competitive activity. We have initiated several new growth initiatives in this business, including the launch of a new cleaning valve, which is expected to launch in the second quarter. Life Sciences’ net sales decreased 1.1% on an organic basis, and decreased 5.2% in total primarily driven by the sale of our High Purity Water business in Canada.”
“In addition, we continue to drive productivity improvements in both our dental and medical businesses. In dental, we continue to execute on our plant consolidation project and in medical we have initiated our plan to consolidate electromechanical manufacturing in Europe to our Italy headquarters site. I am looking forward to sharing more regarding these process improvements in the next few quarters,” EVP and chief operating officer Peter Clifford said.
Investors reacted by sending CMD shares down -8.5% to $70.93 apiece in early morning trading.
