Stryker (NYSE:SYK) posted fourth-quarter earnings this evening that beat the consensus forecast on Wall Street, but the company missed slightly on revenue.
The Kalamazoo, Mich.–based orthopedic device giant — the world’s largest — reported profits of $568 million, or $1.49 per share, on sales of $4.262 billion for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2020, for a bottom-line slide of –21.7% on sales growth of 3.2% compared with Q4 2019.
Adjusted to exclude one-time items, earnings per share were $2.81, 26¢ ahead of The Street, where analysts were looking EPS of $2.55 on sales of $4.33 billion.
Orthopedic device companies have been especially hard-hit during the COVID-19 pandemic as hospitals and patients alike held off on elective procedures. But Stryker appears to have weathered the tough times better than its competitors. Sales ticked down –3.6%, to 14.351 billion, for all of 2020.
“In spite of COVID-19 outbreaks that intensified through the quarter, our teams showed good resilience and delivered a solid quarter of financial results,” Stryker CEO Kevin Lobo said in a news release.
“As we saw with prior pandemic spikes, the impacts were strongest in the businesses linked to deferrable procedures, but as evidenced by our guidance for 2021, we are optimistic about our prospects for the future,” Lobo said. “The Wright Medical integration is off to a strong start, and we continue to advance innovation across the company.”
Stryker said it expects 2021 organic net sales growth to be in the range of 8% to 10% from 2019, with adjusted net earnings per diluted share in the range of $8.80 to $9.20.
Investors reacted by sending SYK shares up slightly to 230.75 per share in after-hours trading. MassDevice‘s MedTech 100 Index, which includes stocks of the world’s largest medical device companies, was down slightly today.