Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) today beat the consensus forecast for its fiscal 4th-quarter sales, which rose nearly 60% on its $50 billion buyout of Covidien, and raised its Q4 earnings outlook.
Fridley, Minn.-based Medtronic reported sales of $7.30 billion for the 3 months ended April 24, up 59.9% compared with the fiscal 2014 4th quarter. Adjusted to include the contribution from Covidien, however, and sales grew just 0.6%. That includes a $482 million headwind from the strong dollar, which put constant-currency growth at 7%, the company said.
Full-year sales came in at $20.26 billion, Medtronic said, up 19% or 6% on a constant-currency basis. Medtronic said it now expects to report adjusted earnings per share "at the upper half" of its $1.08-$1.13 outlook when it reports its full results June 2 (the Covidien deal, which closed in late January, pushed back the date by about 2 weeks, the company said).
Analysts on Wall Street were looking for sales of $7.08 billion and are expecting adjusted EPS of $1.10. The news pushed MDT shares up 0.7% to $77.98 apiece in pre-market trading; the stock opened at $77.85 per share today, up 3.0%.
Chairman & CEO Omar Ishrak said he’s "very encouraged" by the Q4 prelims.
"In addition to making solid progress on our integration of Covidien, these preliminary revenue results reflect disciplined execution across our 3 core strategies of therapy innovation, globalization, and economic value," Ishrak said in prepared remarks.