Edwards Lifesciences (NYSE: EW) shares are down today — a day after reporting third-quarter results that missed the Wall Street consensus forecast.
EW shares were down more than 18% to $70.49 apiece by the afternoon today. MassDevice‘s MedTech 100 Index — which includes stocks of the world’s largest medical device companies — was down more than 1%.
The Irvine, California–based cardio device company saw persistent U.S. hospital staffing shortages and COVID headwinds in Japan affect its TAVR sales. Edwards’ TAVR sales only grew 1% year-over-year in Q3, reaching $862 million.
Edwards Lifesciences earned $343.5 million, or 55¢ per share, off $1.319 billion for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2022. The results represented just a slight uptick in both the bottom and top lines.
Adjusted to exclude one-time items, EPS were 61¢. The results were a penny behind The Street, where analysts expected EPS of 62¢ on sales of $1.33 billion.
Some bright spots for Edwards Lifesciences — but it’s cutting EPS guidance
“Despite a challenging macro environment, our team made significant progress advancing our breakthrough technologies. Our rigorous evidence generation has resulted in new global product approvals of innovative therapies, which will enable us to reach many more patients,” CEO Michael A. Mussallem said in a news release.
Edwards Lifesciences regulatory wins during Q3 included FDA approval and CE Mark of its Pascal Precision system for patients with degenerative mitral regurgitation (DMR). The implant and transcatheter delivery system represent Edwards’ bid to compete with Abbott and its MitraClip in the DMR treatment space.
In addition, there was the launch of the next-gen Sapien 3 Ultra Resilia transcatheter heart valve following FDA approval.
Edwards Lifesciences officials suspect that U.S. hospital staffing challenges and a strong U.S. dollar will persist. They now expect full-year 2022 sales at the low end of the company’s previous range of $5.35 billion to $5.55 billion. They are projecting adjusted EPS of $2.40 to $2.50. The company had previously guided to the bottom end of its $2.50 to $2.65 range.
This story originally ran on Oct. 27, 2022. Updated Oct. 28 with the next-day stock price.