St. Jude Medical (NYSE:STJ) shares are up today after the medical device company reported higher-than-expected sales for the 2nd quarter and met Wall Street’s consensus earnings forecast.
Little Canada, Minn.-based St. Jude posted profits of $238 million, or 83¢ per share, on sales of $1.56 billion for the 3 months ended July 2, for a bottom-line slide of -17.9% on sales growth of 10.8%.
Adjusted to exclude 1-time items, earnings per share were $1.06, dead even with expectations on The Street, where analysts were looking for sales of $1.55 billion.
Investors reacted to the earnings report by pushing STJ shares up a tick in pre-market trading, for a 0.7% gain to $80.80 per share. The stock was up 1.1% to $81.08 apiece in early-morning activity.
“We continued to build momentum during the 2nd quarter by bringing innovative products to our global markets. The strong performance in international sales gives us confidence that where we have a full portfolio, we can deliver top-tier growth. One of the major highlights of our quarter was the announcement of our pending merger with Abbott (NYSE:ABT). We continue to be confident and excited about the potential of our combined organization and the powerful impact we can have on delivering industry leading innovation to physicians and patients around the world,” president & CEO Michael Rousseau said in prepared remarks.
Abbott agreed in April to pay $25 billion for St. Jude; today, the latter said it’s suspending its guidance in light of the impending merger. Earlier this month the companies added 30 days to the expected closing date for the deal, after U.S. anti-trust regulators asked for more information on the proposed tie-up.
The $85-per-share deal consists of $46.75 in cash and 0.8708 ABT shares; at Abbott’s 5-day volume weighted average share price of $43.93 as of April 26, the buyout is worth about $25 billion. That’s a 37% premium on the closing price of $61.97 for STJ shares the day before the acquisition was revealed.
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