St. Jude Medical (NYSE:STJ) today beat expectations for its 3rd-quarter earnings despite missing top-line forecasts, the medical device company said today.
Little Canada, Minn.-based St. Jude posted profits of $215 million, or 97¢ per share, on sales of $1.34 billion for the 3 months ended Oct. 3. That represents a -9.7% profit decline on a sales slide of -2.4% compared with Q3 2014.
Adjusted to exclude 1-time items, earnings per share were 97¢, in line with the consensus expected on Wall Street.* Analysts there were looking for sales of $1.35 billion for the quarter.
“Third-quarter results confirm that our innovation based growth program continues to gain traction. Now we are focused on efficiently integrating our acquisition of Thoratec and strengthening our entire portfolio of growth drivers for 2016,” outgoing chairman, president & CEO Daniel Starks said in prepared remarks.
St. Jude cut its earnings outlook for the full year, saying it now expects to put up adjusted EPS of $3.93 to $3.95, down from prior guidance of $3.96 to $4 even.
The company said 4th-quarter adjusted EPS, including Thoratec, are forecast to be $1 to $1.02.
*Correction, Oct. 21, 2015: Due to a reporter’s error, this article originally reported St. Jude’s adjusted EPS as $1.14; that number is adjusted to constant currency. The correct number is 97¢. Return to the corrected sentence.