Wright Medical (NSDQ:WMGI) today saw shares rise slightly after it announced preliminary earnings for the fourth quarter and full-year 2017 earnings results that beat The Street.
The Amsterdam-based company said it expects to post fourth quarter sales of approximately $217.6 million, which tops analysts expectations of $215.1 million for the quarter. That represents growth of 12.7% as reported and 11.2% on a constant currency basis.
For its full year, Wright Medical said it expects to post sales of $745 million, representing growth of approximately 8% as reported on a constant currency basis.
“Our preliminary fourth quarter results represent an outstanding performance in our U.S. upper extremities business. This performance was driven by the launch of our Perform reversed glenoid and continued contribution from our Simpliciti shoulder system. We anticipate that our ongoing Perform reversed launch and accelerating adoption of the recently acquired Blueprint enabling technology will continue to drive strong shoulder sales growth in 2018. As anticipated, we did not see any benefit in the fourth quarter in our U.S. lower extremities business from the sales force expansion. Additionally, we had some supply constraints primarily related to a third-party coating vendor in the fourth quarter, which we believe have been addressed. However, this affected our total ankle business during the fourth quarter. As previously discussed, we will continue to focus on improving our execution and building our physician relationships to restore growth in our core U.S. lower extremities business and expect to see improvement in 2018 as our larger sales footprint, new products, new reps and expanding relationships begin to take effect,” prez & CEO Robert Palmisano said in an SEC filing.
The company said it plans to report full financial results for the fourth quarter and full-year 2017 after market closing on February 27.
Wright Medical shares are up approximately 1.8% so far today, at $24.38 as of 2.01 p.m. EST.
