Zimmer Biomet (NYSE:ZBH) raised its outlook on 2019 after beating the consensus forecast for both sales and earnings today, driven by an ongoing turnaround that’s six months ahead of schedule.
The Warsaw, Ind.-based orthopedics giant posted profits of $133.7 million, or 65¢ per share, on sales of $1.99 billion for the three months ended June 30, marking a bottom-line slide of 27.7% on a -0.9% sales decline compared with Q2 2018.
Adjusted to exclude one-time items, earnings per share were $1.93, 2¢ ahead of expectations on Wall Street, where analysts were looking for revenues of $1.98 billion.
“My level of confidence in our turnaround increases with every quarter,” president & CEO Bryan Hanson said in prepared remarks. “Our team is focused, engaged and has positioned the company for offense in the second half of 2019. I’m truly excited by the momentum we are seeing and we have updated our guidance to reflect the progress we made in the first half of the year.”
Zimmer Biomet said it now expects to report full-year adjusted EPS of $7.75 to $7.90, up from $7.70 to $7.90 previously, and increased its top-line growth outlook to flat to 0.5%, compared with prior guidance of -0.5% to 0.5%.
ZBH shares closed down -1.5% at $123.91 apiece yesterday.
