Philips Healthcare’s fourth-quarter sales rose for the third consecutive quarter and beat last year’s Q4 sales by 10 percent.
The Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE:PHG) division recorded $3.59 billion in sales for the three months ending Dec. 31, 2010, a 10 percent increase over $3.28 billion in Q4 2009. For the full year, the unit posted sales of $11.70 billion, also up 10 percent over $10.67 billion in the 2009 fourth quarter.
Earnings before interest, taxes and amortization for the North Andover, Mass.-based division were $625 million, or 17.4 percent of the Netherlands-based company’s total earnings, up 17 percent from $533 million a year ago. For the year, the division saw a whopping 56 percent increase in profits, rising from $804 million in 2009 to $1.25 billion for 2010, according to Philips.
The company remains confident in its healthcare sales for the year ahead, according to CFO Pierre-Jean Sivignon. Equipment orders rose 3 percent in Q4 with an "encouraging" 8 percent increase in North America, Sivignon said.
But overall orders for regions outside North America remained flat, with a few bright hotspots on the map: India, China and Latin America. Each sustained an "impressive" orders increase of 20 percent for the quarter, Sivignon said in a conference call yesterday.
Healthcare and Philips’s lighting division together drove a 3,077-person, or 3 percent, increase in the company’s workforce compared to Q4 2009.
Overall, Philips posted fourth-quarter net earnings of $633 million, or 67 cents per diluted share, on revenues of $10.06 billion. That compares with net earnings of $354 million, or 37 cents per diluted share, on sales of $9.88 billion during the same period in 2009. Profits fell well short of the $724 million average forecast in a Reuters poll of 20 analysts.
For the full year, Philips reported net earnings of $1.97 billion, or $2.08 per diluted share, on revenues of $34.59 billion. That compares with net earnings of $577 million, or 60 cents per diluted share, on sales of $31.55 billion during the same period last year.
