Faced with a host of charges related to layoffs, litigation, acquisitions and other strategic attempts to right its business, Boston Scientific Corp. said Monday it lost $458 million in the fourth quarter.
Stentmaker Boston Sci reports $458 million loss
February 5, 2008 at 3:20AM
The Natick, Mass.-based medical device company, which employs more than 6,000 people in the Twin Cities, said U.S. revenue from its signature product, the Taxus drug-coated heart stent, declined about 32 percent to $224 million.
Sales of the artery-clearing device have been sluggish since several studies indicated they may contribute to potentially fatal blood clots in a small number of patients. Recently, however, Wall Street analysts expected the $2 billion market to rebound.
"Sales of drug-[coated] stents were much worse than I expected," said Timothy Nelson, an analyst with FAF Advisors Inc., after reviewing Boston Sci's quarterly results. "I was expecting that market to stabilize more."
Overall, Boston Scientific reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $458 million, or 31 cents per share, compared with net income of $277 million, or 19 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding $939 million in one-time expenses, among them the costs from thousands of job cuts, the company had a profit of 24 cents per share, beating Wall Street estimates of 9 cents per share. (The company never said how many people in the Twin Cities lost their jobs.)
"This quarter had a huge number of adjustments, with the charges due to restructuring. I doubt Wall Street will look at this quarter as a pivotal one in terms of value," Nelson said.
Sales for the quarter ended Dec. 31 were $2.2 billion, compared with $2.1 billion for the same period of 2006.
CEO Jim Tobin said in a statement that Boston Scientific made "substantial progress" toward strengthening the company by focusing and simplifying its business.
Another key product category of interest to Twin Cities residents is the performance of the Arden Hills-based division that makes pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), devices that regulate irregular heart rhythms.
U.S. sales of the devices were $347 million in the quarter, compared with $320 million in the same period of 2006. Fourth-quarter ICD sales in the United States were $266 million, compared with $250 million from the year-earlier period.
Boston Scientific will hold a conference call with analysts Tuesday morning. The company released results after the markets closed Monday. Its stock closed at $12.85, up 48 cents.
Janet Moore • 612-673-7752
New York Police Department still searching for the shooter; executives were meeting for investor conference, which was closed abruptly.
