Medtronic Weathered Disasters by Bending, Not Breaking

Medtronic's revenue and earnings per share beat analyst expectations in the fiscal 2018 second quarter, despite getting hit with multiple natural disasters. The company delivered 3% comparable constant currency revenue growth during the quarter, CEO Omar Ishrak said during the company's earnings call. "These financial results are very encouraging when considered in the context of a quarter in which we faced three hurricanes and the California wildfires," he said. Ishrak said Hurricane Maria, in particular, took a significant toll on the company's manufacturing operations in Puerto Rico, and thousands of Medtronic employees were affected by these natural disasters. "Yet the resiliency, dedication, and persistence of our team to overcome these challenges was remarkable," Ishrak said. CFO Karen Parkhill said the company used alternate manufacturing sites, directed field inventory movement, and "ultimately were able to restore operations more quickly than anticipated," in Puerto Rico. Still, there were some business areas that would have shown slower growth even if they had not been impacted by storms. Raj Denhoy, an analyst at Jeffries, pointed out that U.S. growth in the company's minimally invasive therapies group (MITG) was down 5% even after correcting for the hurricanes. Bryan Hanson, president of Medtronic's MITG, said the group experienced pressure in the respiratory, gastrointestinal and renal (RGR) business, and primarily on the respiratory side where the company had ...
Source: MDDI - Category: Medical Devices Authors: Tags: Medical Device Business Source Type: news