Boston Scientific Corp. said its fourth-quarter income grew 80%
as the medical-device maker posted slightly higher sales and cut
product costs.
Like many medical-device companies, Boston Scientific has in
recent years begun investing heavily in emerging economies such as
China, where a health-care overhaul has expanded access to services
and boosted demand for pharmaceuticals and medical devices.
Device firms hope those investments can offset sales pressure at
home and in Europe, where sales have slowed.
Boston Scientific reported a profit of $108 million, or eight
cents a share, up from $60 million, or four cents a share, a year
earlier. Excluding restructuring and litigation-related charges and
other items, earnings rose to 21 cents from 18 cents.
Net sales edged up 0.9% to $1.84 billion.
Boston Scientific expected an adjusted profit of 18 cents to 20
cents a share and revenue of $1.78 billion to $1.83 billion.
Gross margin rose to 69.8% from 68%, as product costs fell 4.8%.
Operating expenses rose 2.9%.
In the latest period, interventional cardiology sales fell 6.4%
to $500 million, while cardiac-rhythm management sales grew 2.4% to
$468 million.
For the new year, the company expects to post adjusted earnings
of 75 cents to 80 cents a share on revenue of $7.3 billion to $7.5
billion. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters estimated revenue of
$7.41 billion.
Boston Scientific also predicted a first-quarter adjusted profit
of 16 cents to 18 cents a share and revenue of $1.755 billion to
$1.805 billion. Market estimates were for revenue of $1.8
billion.
Shares closed Monday at $13.01 and were up 1.8% premarket. As of
the close, the stock was up 8.2 % so far this year.
Write to Ben Fox Rubin at ben.rubin@wsj.com
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