Shares in ConvaTec (LON:CTEC) rose today despite the company posting first quarter sales that saw sales shrink more than 5%.
The Deeside, U.K.-based company reported sales of $430.6 million for the quarter ended March 31, 6% lower than the $458.2 million it reported during the first quarter of 2018.
The company saw the biggest drop in sales in its advanced wound care division, which reported sales of $129.7 million for the quarter, down 11.8% from the $147.1 million it reported during the first quarter of 2018.
Convatec’s ostomy division reported sales of $119.6 million, down 6.5% from the $128 million it reported during its previous Q1, while its continence care division reported $108.4 million in sales, exactly in line with its 2018 Q1 earnings.
The company’s infusion devices division reported sales of $72.9 million, down 2.4% from its reported $74.7 million during the first quarter of 2018.
“Trading in the first quarter was in-line with our expectations, which reflect the challenges we outlined at our full year results in February. Whilst our US AWC business continues to show weakness and I am impatient for change, we have put in place the building blocks to deliver improved revenue growth throughout the rest of the year. We have become more segment focused, moving to a specialist salesforce model and focusing more of our firepower on the largest opportunities. Organic growth presents year on year growth at constant exchange rates, excluding M&A. Constant exchange rates growth is calculated by applying the applicable prior period average exchange rates to the group’s actual performance in the respective period. Excluding one-off provision to revise the estimate of the distributor rebates accrual. Within continence and critical care, our continence business continues to drive franchise growth, whilst infusion devices saw strong levels of orders in the first quarter. Momentum is building in our transformation initiative, the single most important program within ConvaTec, engaging our people through 75 workshops in the past 2 months and bringing more discipline to our business model, with almost 300 leaders now trained in transformation. We will provide more detail with our interim results in August. My priority remains improving execution. Our focus on this, along with our solid fundamentals and robust cash flows, mean that I am confident we can deliver the improved performance that shareholders and other stakeholders rightly expect,” CEO Rick Anderson said in a press release.
The company said that it reaffirmed its existing guidance for the remaining 2019 year, expecting to see organic revenue growth of 1% to 2.5%.
Shares in ConvaTec rose approximately 5.1% today, closing at $143.45.