Medtronic Beats Earnings, Revenue Forecasts

Looking back over its final quarter as a U.S.-headquartered company, Minnesota medical-device giant Medtronic Inc. on Tuesday reported earning 98 cents per share on $4.32 billion in revenue, beating Wall Street estimates.

Earnings per diluted share rose 31 percent over the same quarter last year, beating consensus estimates by a penny. After adjusting for tax and interest charges and acquisition-related expenses, earnings per share rose to $1.01, a four-cent beat.

Net earnings were $977 million for the quarter that ended Jan. 23. Currency fluctuations shaved off about $158 million in revenue for the quarter.

None of those figures includes the finances of surgical supplier Covidien, which Medtronic acquired on Jan. 26 for $49.9 billion in cash and stock. Medtronic structured the transaction as a corporate inversion, moving its headquarters to low-tax Ireland as part of the deal. The company’s executive offices remain in Fridley, Minnesota.

On Tuesday, Medtronic executives issued guidance saying the company’s combined revenue would grow 4 percent to 6 percent in the coming quarter.

Analysts have said the Covidien transaction will give Medtronic much-needed diversification in its product line, offsetting long-term flat sales in key Medtronic businesses like cardiac-rhythm management and spinal devices. Analysts with Moody’s Investors Service projected those two lines will make up just 28 percent of combined company revenue, compared with 48 percent within Medtronic alone.

On Tuesday, the company said its cardiac-rhythm division turned in $1.27 billion in revenue, which was 7 percent growth over the same quarter last year. The spine division had $740 million in revenue, a drop of 1 percent. After adjusting for currency fluctuations, the cardiac and spine divisions grew by 12 percent and 2 percent, respectively.

Omar Ishrak, who remains chief executive of the combined company, said in a news release that it was “a strong quarter, with revenue growth well above our outlook range for the fiscal year.”

On Tuesday, Medtronic shares rose $2.81, or 3.7 percent, to $78.07.

This article appeared in print in the February 18th, 2015 edition of Hamodia.