Financial

Thoratec Corporation, famous for its Heartmate ventricular assist device, has reported its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2012. Sales of Heartmate are growing nicely and rumours abound that a major shareholder wants to cash in its chips.

Zimmer Holdings, Inc. has reported financial results for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2012 showing a modest year on year increase of 2.1% on a constant currency basis. Full-year net sales were $4.47 billion, an increase of 0.4% reported and 2.3% constant currency over the prior year.

Today sees J&J’s annual business review at which the company says it will lay out its strategic ideas for growth. Its press release offers few surprises and could be summarised as “more of the same”, which is no bad thing looking at the financial results for 2012.

Getinge says overall full-year revenue rose organically by nearly 3%, lower than the expected volume growth. Ii’s fingering weak demand for capital goods in Western Europe and Eastern Europe.

Stryker’s preliminary net sales for the fourth quarter of $2.3 billion, and full year 2012 $8.7 billion represent increases of 5.5% and 4.2%, respectively. The company is overhauling international operations in order to fully exploit opportunities in Europe and emerging markets.

Biomet has released its financial results for the most recent quarter, showing a net sales increase of 9% compared with a year ago. Income and earnings showed similarly healthy increases, although one-off costs translated into a significantly bigger net loss than in the equivalent period.

St. Jude Medical, Inc. revenues for the quarter just ended again showed a decline compared with the equivalent period a year ago, although the drop-off was overall slightly less marked than it had been in Q3. And the bottom line held up as cost saving measures played out.

A poor Q4 for Orthofix in its international markets, has meant that annual sales of approximately $462M are well below the projection of $472-475M made as recently as one quarter ago. U.S. business looks resilient however.

Medtronic’s Heart Pacing and Spine business areas seem to be the only real lowlights on the company’s reported quarterly financials and there are some areas where growth is definitely outstripping the market, so they must be doing something right.

It’s a harsh reality that chasing a PMA is a lengthy and expensive exercise. HeartWare has deep enough pockets to stay the course, but will be looking forward to the day its R&D spend can come down and its revenues go up.

Sports med and Negative Pressure Wound Therapy are the only stars in the portfolio last quarter for Smith & Nephew, although profit performance strength suggests restructuring and disposals have kicked in.

Edwards Lifesciences reported third quarter results showing global THV Sales grew 50% with EPS up 35 Percent (53 Percent Excluding Special Items). Fourth quarter sales and earnings guidance trimmed and still heavily reliant on Sapien uptake.

It’s quarterly financials time… pretty tedious fare, but we have a go at spicing it all up a little. Well someone has to because there’s not much room for humour in it all.

Boston Scientific’s new President and CEO has plenty to think about as the company’s third quarter sales performance shows some of its divisions struggling. Newly acquired technologies give cause for optimism however.

Stryker’s numbers look pretty solid compared with certain others. However a tough OUS sales environment, coupled with general downward pricing pressure especially in capital goods means the company has had to lower 2012 growth forecasts.

It’s not all doom and gloom for St.Jude, but its hard to find much good news from the revenue lines. AF is the shining star from the sales perspective, and the bottom line has been tarnished by inclusion of costs associated with reorganisation