Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (NYSE:EW) jump-started its day on Wall Street with strong first-quarter sales and earnings numbers and a boosted outlook for the rest of the year.
EW shares rose 2.2 percent yesterday as The Street awaited the Irvine, Calif.-based company’s post-market release and another 4.3 percent in after-hours activity as investors digested the good news. Profits rose 34.0 percent to $63.9 million, or 53 cents per diluted share, on sales of $404.5 million during the three months ended March 31 &mdash that’s a top-line increase of 18.8 percent, compared with the same period last year.
And Edwards raised its outlook on the rest of the year, boosting its 2011 sales forecast by $70 million to $1.66 to $1.74 billion and increasing its diluted EPS prediction to $2.01 to $2.07, chairman and CEO Michael Mussallem said in prepared remarks.
Read more of MassDevice.com’s coverage of Edwards Lifesciences Corp.
The rosy outlook is predicated on the launch of Edwards’ Sapien transcatheter aortic valve replacement, which the company believes will bring in $20 million to $25 million in U.S. sales if it wins a nod from the FDA. Edwards has been riding a wave of positives from the device, which performed well in an eagerly awaited study early this month and landed a CE Mark in the European Union in March.
Sapien sales helped drive good results for Edwards’ transcatheter heart valves unit, which posted sales of $72.7 million, up 85.7 percent over Q1 2010. The CE Mark, for a larger size of the device, helped add $2 million to $3 million to the tally.
International sales of $255.4 million accounted for 63.1 percent of total sales for the quarter, with U.S. sales coming in at $149.1 million.
