Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) said its sales and profits grew at a double-digit clip during the 3rd quarter and affirmed its forecast for the rest of 2013.
Irvine, Calif.-based Edwards reported profits of $76.9 million, or 68¢ per share, on sales of $495.6 million for the 3 months ended Sept. 30, for profit growth of 11.1% on sales growth of 10.6%.
The earnings per share figure beat Wall Street’s expectations by 2¢.
"This quarter, we are pleased to report strong sales growth driven by transcatheter and surgical heart valves," chairman & CEO Michael Mussallem said in prepared remarks. "Notable THV highlights this quarter included approval to begin the U.S. clinical study of our most advanced valve, Sapien 3; expanded approval to include alternate delivery approaches for Sapien in the U.S.; a favorable patent infringement ruling in Germany; and reimbursement enabling Sapien XT to become the first commercially offered transcatheter valve for patients in Japan."
"Strong sales in Europe resulted from greater adoption of THV, with negligible impact from the favorable patent infringement ruling in Germany," Mussallem added. "As expected, activity in the U.S. slowed sequentially due to seasonality; however, we estimate commercial procedures grew 80% over last year. Importantly, nearly 15,000 U.S. patients have been treated with Edwards’ transcatheter valves over the past 2 years and clinicians continue to report very high procedural success rates."
Edwards still expects to post adjusted EPS of $3-$3.10 on sales of $2.0 billion to $2.1 billion this year, he said. Fourth-quarter EPS are pegged at 81¢-85¢ on sales of $520 million to $550 million, Mussallem said.
EW shares were down 4.9% to $73.29 apiece in pre-market trading today.
