Boston Scientific Q3 earnings beat; stock slips on sales miss, weak guidance

Boston Scientific’s (BSX) stock suffered a loss early Wednesday after the company reported weak sales numbers for the third quarter and revised down the full-year guidance. While the top-line missed estimates, earnings grew sharply and exceeded the forecast, aided by stable demand across all operating segments and geographical regions.

Adjusted earnings of the Marlborough, Massachusetts-based medical devices maker moved up to $0.35 per share in the third quarter from $0.31 per share in the year-ago period, exceeding expectations. Reported net income was $432 million or $0.31 per share, up from $283 million or $0.20 per share in the third quarter of 2017.

Net sales jumped 7.7% annually to $2.39 billion during the quarter but missed Wall Street estimates. On an organic basis, sales rose 8.7%. Sales at the MedSurg division grew 10.3% annually, while the Rhythm and Neuro segment registered a 7.4% gain. Cardiovascular sales were higher by 5.9% compared to last year.

Adjusted earnings moved up to $0.35 per share in the third quarter from $0.31 per share in the year-ago period

“Our strong results reflect our global team’s focused efforts to execute our category leadership strategy and advance the standard of care. Through internal research and tuck-in acquisitions, we continue to bring meaningful innovations to market, enabling our customers to deliver life-changing care to millions of patients around the world,” said CEO Mike Mahoney.

Stryker confirms that it didn’t bid for Boston Scientific

Looking ahead, the company expects full-year revenues to be in the range of $9.787 billion to $9.827 billion, slightly lower than the earlier estimate of $9.800-$9.880 billion. Meanwhile, the earnings forecast was revised up to $1.08-$1.10 per share from the earlier prediction of between $0.99 per share and $1.03 per share. The current forecast for full-year adjusted earnings is $1.37-$1.41 per share.

The sales outlook for the fourth quarter is between $2.525 billion and $2.565 billion. Unadjusted and adjusted earnings are expected to be in the range of $0.15-$0.17 per share and $0.30-$0.32 per share respectively.

The company’s stock, which has been on an upward trajectory for some time, gained 26% over the past twelve months. The stock closed the previous trading session lower and lost further in early trading Wednesday.

Listen to publicly listed companies’ earnings conference calls along with the edited closed caption text