Varian Medical Systems Inc. (NYSE:VAR) late last week inked a deal with Bank of America to buy back about $280 million worth of its common stock, reducing the amount of outstanding shares by almost 3 percent.
Wall Street Beat
Medtronic’s move against pricing squeeze wins over Wall Street
Medtronic Inc.’s (NYSE:MDT) move last week to cancel $2 billion worth of supply contracts with Novation LLC could save the device maker some $60 million a year. It’s a no-brainer for one of med-tech’s biggest players, but it might signal a wider trend: Will the medical device industry buck group purchasing organizations even as hospitals flock to them?
St. Jude Medical starts issuing dividends
St. Jude Medical Inc. (NYSE:STJ) shares are slightly lower today, falling 26 cents to $47.75 after the medical device maker disclosed plans to begin paying a quarterly dividend to shareholders.
The move has the St. Paul, Minn.-based medical device maker joining a gaggle of healthcare firms to initiate or expand payments in recent weeks.
Hologic wins patent fight on appeal
PerkinElmer says “No sale”
PerkinElmer Inc. (NYSE:PKI) shares are now down more than 4 percent today, falling $1.12 to $26.60 after the diagnostics giant flatly denied takeover speculation.
Sliding Q4 profits put Harvard Bioscience under pressure
A dip in fourth-quarter net income is starting to catch up with Harvard Bioscience (NSDQ:HBIO) today, with share prices sliding to reverse a modest rally earlier in the day.
HBIO shares were down 6 cents to $4.32 each by roughly 2 p.m. The lab instruments maker this morning reported $2.2 million in fourth-quarter profits on $29.5 million in sales — beating the revenue estimate of the lone analyst tracking the company — and a 6.8 percent increase from year-ago revenues. Earnings per share were 8 cents.
Investors shake off Symmetry Medical’s EPS miss, sub-par forecast
Symmetry Medical (NYSE:SMA) shares are up about 4 percent today to $9.01 each in mid-session trading, despite reporting fourth-quarter earnings below analysts’ expectations last night
That may be due to the Warsaw, Ind.-based orthopedic company’s forecast of 6 percent top-line growth. Revenues could reach as high as $383 million this year, up from $360.8 million in 2010 and just shy of the Wall Street call.
The company also forecast earnings of 57 cents to 65 cents a share, below the average 69 cent EPS predicted by analyst in a Thomson Reuters poll.
Fresenius guides 2011 revenues above the Street, but misses on bottom-line call
Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA (NYSE:FMS) is getting a small boost this side of the pond, with traders adding about 0.2% to its share price today in modest trading volume after the company forecast 6 percent to 8 percent revenue growth in 2011.
That topped the $12.74 billion average of nine analyst polled by Zacks by at least $60 million this year. Fresenius said earlier today it expects revenue to grow to a range between $12.8 billion to $13.0 billion.
UBS raises Stryker to Buy from Neutral
Stryker Corp. (NYSE:SYK) shares are down slightly this afternoon despite a reported upgrade of the stock by UBS from Neutral to Buy.
The UBS analysts also raised their price target for the medical device manufacturer to $70.00 from $62.00, suggesting a potential 13.3 percent gain based on SYK’s current price of $61.85 a share.
Quest, LabCorp resist general stock slide
Billion dollar patents?
Forbes has just published its annual list of America’s richest. The top 10 includes Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Larry Ellison, the Koch brothers, a bunch of Waltons, and Michael Bloomberg. They made their money in computer software, investing, manufacturing, retail, and news services. But did any use patents to make their fortunes?