Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) posted fourth-quarter earnings this evening that missed the consensus forecast on Wall Street, though the company met revenue expectations.
The Irvine, Calif.–based cardio device company reported profits of $309.5 million, or 49¢ per share, on sales of $1.19 billion for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2020, for a bottom-line gain of 10.5% on sales growth of 1% compared with Q4 2019.
Adjusted to exclude one-time items, earnings per share were 50¢, missing –3¢ off The Street, where analysts were looking EPS of 53¢ on sales of $1.19 billion.
Sales were flat for Edwards’ flagship TAVR products, which saw only 2% growth in the quarter as the latest COVID-19 pandemic wave delayed procedures. Overall Edwards sales were up nearly 1%, to $4.386 billion, in 2020.
“Despite unprecedented challenges in 2020, I’m proud of our team’s steadfast dedication to patients and advancing Edwards’ long-term strategy. We continued to invest in developing solutions that extend lives, improve quality of life, and offer greater value to the healthcare system,” said Michael A. Mussallem, chairman and CEO. “As we look to 2021 and beyond, I am as excited as ever about the work happening at Edwards and, more importantly, what we envision for the future of patient care.”
Officials at Edwards especially see opportunity in the transcatheter mitral and tricuspid therapies space, where it would go toe to toe with Abbott. Edwards management thinks the global TMTT opportunity will reach $3 billion by 2025.
Edwards Lifesciences said it continues to expect to log adjusted EPS of $2.00 to $2.20 in 2021, with full-year sales guidance remaining at $4.9 to $5.3 billion.
During the company’s Q4 earnings call, Mussallem repeated the company’s anticipation of underlying TAVR sales growth in the 15% to 20% range in 2021. “We expect continuing COVID-related challenges early in 2021, turning to a more normalized growth environment in the second half of the year. We remain confident this large global opportunity will exceed $7 billion by 2024, which implies a compounded annual growth rate in the low double-digit range.”
In a note after the call, Jefferies analysts sounded optimistic about the long-term: “Near-term uncertainty abounds, but the long-term opportunities in TAVR and ultimately mitral and tricuspid are what matter — and what keep us positive on EW.”
Investors reacted by sending EW shares down –2.26% to $83 in after-hours trading. MassDevice‘s MedTech 100 Index, which includes stocks of the world’s largest medical device companies, was down slightly today.
