Hansen Medical (NSDQ:HNSN) managed to eke out a profit during the 4th quarter on the sale and licensing of some of its patents, but still posted wider losses for 2012, sending shares down on Wall Street last week.
The Mountain View, Calif.-based medical device company reported profits of $9.6 million, or 15¢ per share, on sales of $4.3 million during the 3 months ended Dec. 31, 2012, for a top-line slide of 29.6% compared with Q4 2011, when Hansen posted losses of $9.5 million.
For the full year Hansen logged losses of $22.1 million, or 35¢ per share, on sales of $17.6 million, for a 32.5% widening of losses and a 20.3% sales slide.
Analysts on Wall Street were looking for Q4 losses of 4¢ per share and 58¢ for the full year.
"2012 was a strong year for Hansen Medical, as we achieved one of the most significant milestones in the company’s history with the receipt of FDA clearance for our Magellan robotic system and the subsequent first system sale and clinical cases in the U.S.," president & CEO Bruce Barclay said in prepared remarks. "While the difficult macroeconomic environment has caused hospitals to prolong their evaluation period for new technologies, we anticipate that at least 9 Magellan systems will be installed in hospitals by the end of the 1st quarter, and I expect that the adoption of our technology will grow as physicians generate additional clinical data."
Hansen said it expects to grow Magellan sales this year but passed on issuing any sales or earnings guidance, blaming "the uncertainty of the timing of system shipments."
"Hansen Medical is shifting the focus of its resources towards sales and marketing in order to further support the global launch of our Magellan System. We will continue to leverage the positive data being generated by physicians with our technology in order to drive further adoption of intravascular robotics around the world," concluded Mr. Barclay.