St. Jude Medical Logs Double-Digit Sales Growth

By Lisa Beilfuss 

St. Jude Medical Inc., in the midst of being acquired by Abbott Laboratories, said solid demand at home and overseas pushed revenue 11% higher in its latest quarter.

The St. Paul, Minn., medical device maker received an unsolicited $25 billion bid from Illinois-based Abbott in April, one deal in a flurry of transactions as companies across the health-care space respond to cost pressures by beefing up to increase their negotiating leverage and gain pricing power. St. Jude has itself been working to tap new markets, buying heart-device maker Thoratec last summer for $3.4 billion.

St. Jude and Abbott have said that they expect to close the merger in the fourth quarter. On Wednesday, St. Jude Chief Executive Michael Rousseau expressed optimism over the combined company's potential.

In its latest quarter, the device maker logged 10% sales growth in international markets. Meanwhile, domestic sales rose 12%. Double-digit gains in revenue from atrial fibrillation, heart failure and neuromodulation devices offset an 8% decline in world-wide cardiac rhythm management sales.

Over all for the quarter, St. Jude reported a profit of $238 million, or 83 cents a share, down from year-earlier earnings of $290 million, or $1.02 a share. Excluding acquisition-related expenses and charges associated with the amortization of intangible assets, among other items, per-share profit rose to $1.06 a share from $1.03.

Revenue climbed 11% to $1.56 billion.

Analysts projected $1.06 in adjusted earnings per share on $1.55 billion in sales, according to Thomson Reuters.

Given the pending merger, St. Jude withdrew its outlook for the year.

Write to Lisa Beilfuss at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 20, 2016 08:10 ET (12:10 GMT)

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