A first-quarter sales-and-earnings beat pushed Merit Medical (NSDQ:MMSI) shares up today before the market opened, as the medical device maker maintained its outlook for 2019.
South Jordan, Utah-based Merit reported profits of $6.2 million, or 11¢ per share, on sales of $238.3 million for the three months ended March 31, for a 10.0% profit gain on sales growth of 17.4% compared with the same period last year.
Adjusted to exclude one-time items, earnings per share were 37¢, two pennies ahead of Wall Street, where analysts were looking for sales of $236.5 million.
“Our first-quarter results fulfilled our goal of 8% to 10% core growth by landing on the top side of our projection,” founder, chairman & CEO Fred Lampropoulos said in prepared remarks. “Our transition of the Becton, Dickinson deal continues on schedule with some of the acquired products now being built in our facility in Tijuana, Mexico. The entire transition program is scheduled for completion later this year.
“The Cianna transition is complete and sales continue to grow according to our expectations,” Lampropoulos said. “Although the complications of Brexit, consolidation of notified bodies and the new European Medical Device Regulation have slowed new product approvals, we anticipate receiving approval of the Savi Scout for sale in Europe in the near future.”
Merit still expects to post EPS of $1.97 to $2.08 this year on sales of $1.01 billion to $1.03 billion, Lampropoulos said during a conference call with analysts yesterday.
MMSI shares closed up 2.8% yesterday at $59.20 and had gained another 1.1% to $59.83 in pre-market trading today.