Third-quarter sales for Mazor Robotics (NSDQ:MZOR) rose nearly 54% as the robot-assisted surgery company sold more guidance systems than during all of last year.
Caesarea, Israel-based Mazor posted losses of -$5.2 million, or -11¢ per share, on sales of $7.6 million for the 3 months ended Sept. 30, keeping the bottom line flat compared with Q3 2015.
Analysts on Wall Street were looking for losses of -19¢ on sales of $7.7 million. MZOR shares, which yesterday closed up 5.4% at $22.71 apiece, were up a penny in pre-market trading this morning.
“This was a strong quarter for Mazor as we received purchase orders for 25 surgical guidance systems, a new record and nearly equivalent to the number of systems ordered in all of 2015,” CEO Ori Hadomi said in prepared remarks. “Our continued momentum in the 2nd half of 2016 is being driven mainly by 2 of our significant achievements – the strategic agreement signed in May with Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) and the unveiling of the Mazor X system in July. In addition, to date, we have received orders for 6 systems in the 4th quarter, including 5 Mazor X orders. This momentum combined with the strong interest we are experiencing for our products, clearly position us to maintain market leadership in surgical guidance spine surgeries.”
The Mazor X unveiling triggered the 2nd step in a 3-stage equity deal with Medtronic. The 1st phase of the deal calls for Medtronic to acquire 15 Mazor systems in 2016 and makes Medtronic Mazor’s sole partner for developing and commercializing robot-assisted spine surgery devices. In the 2nd phase, Medtronic paid $20 million for a 3.4% stake in Mazor at $21.84 apiece, the trailing 20-day average for MZOR shares at the time
Including the 2nd payment, Medtronic has spent $31.9 million acquiring a 7.27% stake in the robotics company.