ICU Medical beats The Street, takes new CEO from CareFusion

California-based ICU Medical (NSDQ:ICUI) posted a better-than-expected Q4, concurrently announcing the appointment of Vivek Jain as its new CEO.

Jain joins ICU from his previous post as president of Procedural Solutions at CareFusion (NYSE:CFN), where he’d worked since September 2009. Jain takes over ICU’s corner office today and joins the company’s board of directors, with acting president & CEO Steve Riggs returning to his role as VP of operations.

ICU Medical lost its chief executive when founder Dr. George Lopez stepped down for health reasons in October. His departure was announced alongside the company’s Q3 earnings, which featured a 9.5% decline in earnings on 1.9% sales growth year-over-year. The lackluster outcomes spurred a downgrade of the company’s full-year outlook.

ICU’s Q4 results featured an 8.1% boost in profits on a 5.8% decline in sales, with per-share earnings beating Wall Street’s estimates by 14¢.

The company reported profits of $13.3 million, or 86¢ per diluted share, on sales of $77.9 million during the 3 months ended December 31. That compared with profits of $12.3 million, or 82¢ per share, on sales of $82.7 million during the same period the previous year.

Full-year results included a 1% dip in sales and a 2.2% dip in profits, but the company beat analysts’ consensus estimate by 13¢. ICU posted earnings of $40.4 million, or $2.65 per diluted share, on sales of $313.7 million for the year. That compared with profits of $41.3 million, or $2.80 per share, on sales of $316.9 million in 2012.

The news didn’t do much for ICUI shares, which gained about half a percent from February 11-12. Shares have lost 2.7% since the start of the year.