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Medical device maker Abiomed ( ABMD ) popped in early trading after it beat quarterly estimates and raised guidance Thursday, while its larger counterpart Boston Scientific ( BSX ) was falling after a more mixed report. Abiomed’s earnings for its fiscal Q3 ended Dec. 31 totaled 23 cents a share, down 23% from the year-earlier quarter but well ahead of analysts’ consensus of 15 cents as reported by Thomson Reuters. Sales rose 38% to $85.8 million, about $5 million above consensus. Abiomed raised its revenue guidance for the full fiscal 2016 to $326 million, up from a previous range of $305 million to $315 million. It said that sales in the current quarter should be $90 million, above Wall Street’s estimate of $85.1 million and up from $62.6 million in last year’s fourth quarter. The company didn’t guide earnings, but it did say that gross profit margin should be higher than its previous guidance of 15% to 17%. Abiomed stock was up 5% in morning trading on the stock market today , near 89. The news wasn’t a total surprise, since Abiomed issued preliminary Q3 sales last month that matched the current report. Leerink analyst Danielle Antalffy wrote that the EPS and guidance numbers brought further upside, supporting strong uptake of Abiomed’s Impella heart pump. “In the U.S., Abiomed clearly continues to drive what we believe is sustainable adoption momentum that should continue to ramp with the recent Impella 2.5 PMA (premarket approval), as the company can more aggressively market to physicians than before,” Antalffy wrote in a research note. “This is further supplemented by the Impella RP and upcoming late-calendar-year 2016 Japan regulatory and reimbursement approval.” Boston Scientific Revenue Falls Short Boston Scientific stock was down 4% Thursday morning, near 17, after the company reported Q4 sales of $1.98 billion, up 5% from the prior year’s Q4 but about $16 million below consensus. Profit rose 18% to 26 cents a share, a penny over the Street. Boston Scientific said that sales in the current quarter should be $1.89 billion to $1.94 billion, somewhat on the low side of analysts’ $1.93 billion consensus, though up from $1.77 billion last year. It said earnings will be 23 to 25 cents a share, in line with consensus and up from 21 cents last year. For the year, the company’s sales guidance of $7.9 billion to $8.1 billion bracketed consensus, while EPS was on the high side at $1.03 to $1.07. “Gross margins (in Q4) came in slightly above our expectations, but operating expenses came in well above our estimate driven by higher sales, general and administrative and R&D expenses, that were offset by tax (which we estimate contributed 1 to 2 cents),” Evercore ISI analyst Vijay Kumar wrote in an email to clients. “Overall, in the context of a tough health care tape and concerns over slowdown in emerging markets and ICD (implantable cardioverter defibrillator) share losses, we view today’s print and guidance as solid.” Image provided by Shutterstock . Scalper1 News
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