Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) raised its fiscal 3rd-quarter sales and earnings, but reported still-soft numbers for its bread-and-butter spine and implantable defibrillator businesses.
The Fridley, Minn.-based medical device leviathan posted profits of $935 million, or 84 cents per share, on sales of $3.92 billion during the 3 months ended Jan. 27. That’s a bottom-line gain of 1.2% and a top-line increase of 1.6%, compared with Q3 2011.
But sales for Medtronic’s implantable cardiac defibrillator unit fell to $674 million, down 9% on a constant-currency basis. And spine revenues were down 10% on a constant-currency basis, to $784 million.
Sign up to get our free newsletters delivered straight to your inbox
“I am pleased that a majority of our business mix continued to report strong, consistent revenue growth in the upper single digits. However, this was masked by continued challenges in our U.S. ICD and Spine performance,”
Chairman & CEO Omar Ishrak said prepared remarks). “Stabilizing these businesses along with delivering on our key strategic imperatives of improving execution, optimizing innovation, and accelerating globalization should position us well to deliver long-term sustainable growth.”
Stay tuned for more on Medtronic’s Q2 results from MassDevice.com
Medtronic maintained its guidance for sales growth between 1% and 3%, but “tightened” its earnings outlook for fiscal 2012, to between $3.44 and $3.47. Adjusted EPS, excluding 4 to 6 cents’ worth of dilution from its $800 million acquisition of Ardian, is now pegged at $3.48 to $3.51. Analysts on Wall Street are expecting adjusted EPS of $3.44.
“While this was a challenging quarter from a revenue perspective, I was encouraged by the management team’s ability to execute on delivering the bottom line,” Ishrak said. “We remain optimistic that long-term growth should improve as we dramatically expand our global footprint and focus on delivering economic value as well as clinical value to our customers.”
