Minnesota medtech titan St. Jude Medical (NYSE:STJ) lost a few points on Wall Street today after posting 1st quarter earnings a penny above analysts’ consensus estimate.
STJ shares dropped as much as 4.5% in morning trading, crawling back up to trade at $61.66 as of about 12:05 p.m. EST, still a 2.6% slide on the day.
The company reported an 11.7% rise in profits on a 1.9% rise in sales during the 3 months ended March 29. Excluding special items, adjusted earnings amounted to 96¢ per share, beating analysts’ estimates by 1¢ and last year’s Q1 adjusted earnings by 4¢.
St. Jude reported $249 million in profit, or 86¢ per diluted share, on sales of $1.36 billion during the 3 months ended March 29, 2014. That compared with profits of $223 million, or 78¢ per shares, on sales of $1.34 billion during the same period last year.
Revenues for the company’s various divisions were pretty flat year-over-year, with the exception of the atrial fibrillation unit, which saw an 8% bump in worldwide revenue. Cardiac rhythm management grew 1%, implantable cardioverter defibrillators grew 2% and the cardiovascular division dropped 1%. Neuromodulation and pacemakers were flat, the company reported.
"St. Jude Medical delivered a solid 1st quarter by meeting or exceeding our expectations in each of our technology platforms," president & CEO Daniel Starks said in prepared remarks. "These results reinforce our confidence that we are on track to accelerate sales growth as our product mix shifts to faster growing markets and as we continue to launch new products that improve patient outcomes, ensure the highest quality and lower the costs of treating expensive epidemic diseases."
The industry giant expects Q2 revenues in the range of $1.380 billion to $1.460 billion, according to today’s financial report. Net profits should be in the range of 99¢ to $1.01 per share.
