Covidien (NYSE:COV) said today that its fiscal 3rd-quarter earnings topped expectations on Wall Street, on sales that came in dead even with analysts’ consensus estimate.
Mansfield, Mass.-based Covidien posted profits of $306 million, or 67¢ per share, on sales of $2.69 billion for the 3 months ended June 27. Although that’s a 22.7% bottom-line slide on sales growth of 4.3% compared with the same period last year, adjusted earnings per share (excluding 1-time items) reached $1.01, 4¢ ahead of expectations on The Street and 14.3% above adjusted EPS from Covidien’s fiscal Q3 2013.
"We delivered solid performance in the 3rd quarter, returning to double-digit EPS growth," chairman, president & CEO José Almeida said in prepared remarks. "This performance reflects significant increases in advanced surgical, aided by global market share gains in vessel sealing and stapling. Substantial growth in both our gastrointestinal and interventional lung offerings, as well as productivity improvements, also contributed to this positive result."
Covidien, which is domiciled in Ireland, is awaiting a $43 billion merger with Medtronic (NYSE:MDT), a so-called inversion deal that will allow Medtronic to repatriate billions in cash earned overseas. That deal is expected to close late this year or early in 2015.
Sales for the company’s advanced surgical business rose 12.8% to $914 million, "driven largely by the acquisition of Given Imaging," according to a press release. Covidien closed that $860 million buyout last February, saying it expected the deal to add $40 million to $50 million in "incremental" revenue per quarter. Given Imaging makes the PillCam device, an endoscope in a capsule designed to deliver images during the 10 hours it spends traversing the GI tract.
COV shares closed down 0.2% yesterday at $89.10 apiece. The stock was down another 0.03% this morning in pre-market activity, trading at $89.07 per share as of about 8:15 Eastern.