Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE: EW) reported third-quarter financial results that exceeded Wall Street’s expectations on profits but narrowly missed on sales.
The Irvine, California–based cardio device company yesterday evening reported earnings of $340.1 million (or 54¢ per share) off sales of $1.31 billion. That’s a 4.6% increase from Q3 2020’s earnings of $325.2 million (52¢ per share) off sales of $1.14 billion.
Edwards reported TAVR sales of $858 million, which were up 15% from the same three months a year ago. Edwards said transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) sales would have been higher if not for continued pressure on hospitals from COVID-19. The company said TAVR sales outside of the U.S. grew approximately 20% on a year-over-year basis.
“Although we experienced the encouraging signs of patient confidence and continued willingness to seek medical care in July, the Delta variant had a significant impact on hospital resources during the last two months of the third quarter, especially in the U.S.,” CEO Mike Mussallem said on a call to discuss the results.
“Despite the pronounced impact of the Delta variant in the U.S. in Q3, we’re encouraged by the recent decline in hospital COVID admissions,” he continued. “We believe some procedures were unfortunately deferred in the third quarter. And based on what we saw in Q2, we expect many of these patients who deferred treatment in Q3 will be treated in the future.”
Edwards maintained its full-year 2021 guidance for sales in the range of $5.2 billion to $5.4 billion and adjusted earnings per share at the high end of $2.07 to $2.27.
At 54¢, earnings per share were 1¢ ahead of The Street, where analysts were looking for EPS of 53¢ on sales of $1.32 billion.
Shares of Edwards Lifesciences stock were down about –4% in after-hours trading. By the afternoon today, they were up slightly. MassDevice’s MedTech 100 Index, which includes stocks of the world’s largest medical device companies, was mostly unchanged.
This story originally ran on October 27, 2021. Updated October 28 with stock price.
