Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) said this morning that the $750 million settlement it announced today with Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) cut its 4th-quarter profits by some 54%.
Medtronic reported profits of $448 million, or 44¢ per share, on sales of $4.57 billion for the 3 months ended April 25, for a profit slide of 53.8% on sales growth of 2.4%.
Medtronic still managed to meet Wall Street’s earnings forecast, excluding the Edwards settlement and another agreement to settle product liability lawsuits filed over its Infuse bone-growth protein. Adjusted earnings per share were $1.12 for the quarter, exactly in line with consensus on The Street.
"In our 4th quarter, our overall organization once again delivered balanced growth, with strong performances in some areas more than offsetting challenges in other parts of our business," chairman & CEO Omar Ishrak said in prepared remarks. "We remain focused on delivering consistent and dependable growth across all of our businesses through our 3 growth vectors: new therapies, emerging markets, and independent services and solutions."
For the full fiscal 2014 year, Medtronic reported profits of $3.07 billion, or $3.02 per share, on sales of $17.01 billion, for a profit decline of 11.6% on sales growth of 2.5%, once again exactly meeting The Street’s adjusted EPS forecast of $3.82.
Medtronic said it expects to put up EPS of $4-$4.10 for fiscal 2015, on sales growth of 3%-5%.
"As we look ahead to fiscal year 2015, we remain focused on striving to reliably deliver on our baseline expectations," Ishrak added. "Furthermore, Medtronic intends to play a leading role in the transformations being undertaken in healthcare systems around the world. We are committed to deploying our technology, services, and people into partnerships with physicians, providers, payers, and governments to help them achieve their goals. We are confident that we can play an integral role in helping them drive more value into their systems and ultimately, achieve better patient access and outcomes around the world. There are tremendous opportunities ahead as we transform Medtronic from being primarily a device provider today into the premier global medical technology solutions partner of tomorrow."