Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE:EW) stock is up today — a day after the company announced fourth-quarter results that beat the consensus forecast.
Shares of EW were up more than 3% at $79.63 apiece by late morning trading today. MassDevice’s MedTech 100 Index — which includes stocks of the world’s largest medical device companies — finished the day up more than 11%.
The Irvine, California–based company posted profits of $398.4 million in the quarter. That amounts to 65¢ per share on sales of $1.35 billion for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2022.
Edwards recorded an 18.8% bottom-line gain on sales growth of 1.4%.
Adjusted to exclude one-time items, earnings per share came in at 64¢ apiece. That lands Edwards 3¢ ahead of projections on Wall Street. The company posted a sales beat, too, as analysts expected $1.33 billion in revenue.
While TAVR sales remained flat year over year, Edwards reported 1% growth for its structural heart business. It attributed that bump to the launch of its Resilia technologies and its Mitris surgical mitral valve. Edwards’ Pascal transcatheter valve repair system — which the FDA approved in September — contributed to $32 million in sales for the transcatheter mitral and tricuspid therapies business. That segment increased full-year sales by 50% to $116 million, Edwards reported.
BTIG analyst Marie Thibault said her team forecasted slightly higher U.S. TAVR sales in 2023, and Edwards’ share price movement should reflect that.
“But, after a string of weak TAVR results, we remain on the sidelines awaiting evidence of this improvement in the TAVR market,” Thibault wrote. The BTIG team maintained its “Neutral” rating for Edwards due to below-expectation TAVR results in recent quarters.
The outlook for Edwards in 2023
Edwards Chair and CEO Michael Mussallem, who announced plans to step down this year, said the company performed well despite ongoing challenges in the business environment. Still, he noted that the healthcare environment “is gradually improving.”
“While the challenging environment negatively impacted sales, we grew 8 percent in 2022 and our company stayed focused on the long-term, making meaningful progress on strategic milestones with the potential of transforming patient care,” Mussallem said. “Edwards has continued to aggressively invest during this transient COVID environment, which positions our company for strong growth and leadership in a new era of structural heart and critical care innovation.”
Edwards reaffirmed the sales guidance it provided in December 2022. It projects full-year sales to grow between 9% and 12% in a range between $5.6 billion and $6 billion.
The company set expectations for full-year adjusted EPS for between $2.45 and $2.60.
In the first quarter of the year, Edwards projects sales between $1.37 billion and $1.45 billion. It said it expects adjusted EPS to land at between 58¢ and 64¢.
“We expect meaningful growth and progress in 2023 with a gradual improvement in healthcare staffing and contributions from all major regions,” Mussallem said. “We are enthusiastic about the continued expansion of transcatheter-based therapies for the many structural heart patients still in need, which positions us well for long-term success. As the global population ages and cardiovascular disease remains the largest health burden, we believe the opportunity to serve our patients will nearly double between now and 2028, reflecting low double-digit annual growth. We are confident that our patient-focused innovation strategy can transform care and bring value to patients and healthcare systems worldwide.”
This story originally ran on Jan. 31, 2022. Updated Feb. 1 with the next-day stock price.
