Shares in ConMed (NSDQ:CNMD) have risen today after the medical device maker beat expectations on Wall Street with its first quarter earnings results.
The Utica, N.Y.-based company posted profits of $10.7 million, or 37¢ per share, on sales of $202.1 million for the three months ended March 31, seeing a swing from red ink on the bottom-line while sales grew 8.3% compared with the same period during the previous year.
Adjusted to exclude one-time items, earnings per share were 53¢, well ahead of the 43¢ consensus on Wall Street, where analysts expected too see sales of $196.4 million which the company topped.
“We are pleased with our first quarter results, in which we delivered 6.8% constant-currency revenue growth and 13.9% adjusted EBITDA growth over the prior year. Looking forward, we are increasing our outlook for 2018, while continuing to invest back into the business to strengthen the long-term revenue and earnings profile of the company,” prez & CEO Curt Hartman said in a press release.
ConMed released updated guidance for the full year, lifting its expected sales growth from between 4% and 5% to between 4.5% and 5.5%. The company also lifted its adjusted EPS expectations from between $2.11 and $2.17 to between $2.15 and $2.20.
Leerink Partner analyst Richard Newitter said the earnings were a positive start to the year for the company, but that they’ll need to see more evidence of positive motion over the coming quarters.
“We don’t want to take away from the fact that CNMD is clearly making progress on an evolving turnaround, upgraded leadership, accelerating rev growth, and now 2 quarters of some op leverage under its belt. However, we also think the recent stock run and current valuation already give a lot of credit for these items. For our part, we’d like to see more evidence that accelerating revenue can in fact translate into meaningfully higher operating earnings power in order to argue for putting new money to work at these levels,” Newitter wrote in a letter to investors.
Shares in ConMed have risen 4.6% so far today, at $66.04 as of 11:52 a.m. EDT.