Boston Scientific still surging upward, with 12% sales bump amid product launches, M&A moves

Boston Scientific still surging upward, with 12% sales bump amid product launches, M&A moves

After two straight years of quarterly sales growth, that trend hasn’t yet gone out of style for Boston Scientific.

The medtech giant kicked off its 2023 earnings series Wednesday with a first-quarter report detailing yet another jump in sales. For the period, it raked in just under $3.4 billion, which adds up to a 12% increase over the $3 billion the company earned during the same quarter last year—which had itself marked a 10% increase over 2021’s haul.

Both of Boston Scientific’s core business divisions—medical surgical and cardiovascular—performed well during the quarter, with 11% and 12.7% year-over-year growth, respectively.

MedSurg’s urology segment and the cardiovascular division’s cardiology business were the only two subdivisions to outdo the 12% overall average, with sales bumps of around 14% in each. Fittingly, those segments were the respective homes of the two Boston Scientific devices that earned regulatory clearances during the quarter and which were highlighted in the earnings report: The LithoVue Elite single-use ureteroscope earned an FDA nod and launched in the U.S. and Japan during the period, while a cryoablation balloon catheter dubbed the POLARx FIT reeled in clearances in Japan, Canada and Europe to treat atrial fibrillation.

Outside of the new product launches, Boston Scientific also spotlighted its ongoing clinical trial work and the closures of two separate acquisitions among high points for the period.

The larger of those acquisitions was announced in November. It saw the devicemaker offer up $615 million to acquire Apollo Endosurgery, which makes devices for gastrointestinal procedures, including endoscopic suturing systems and a weight-loss balloon implant.

Just a few weeks later, Boston Scientific laid out a plan to shell out $523 million to take on a majority stake in Acotec Scientific. The Beijing-based company produces a range of heart-focused technologies spanning drug-coated balloons, percutaneous transluminal angioplasty devices and radiofrequency ablation catheters.

Yet another deal could be on the way—and could potentially be one of Boston Scientific’s biggest. A Bloomberg report earlier this month suggested that the company is eyeing a buyout of catheter maker Shockwave Medical in a deal that could stretch into the tens of billions.

Alongside its surging sales, Boston Scientific also reported a first-quarter net income that nearly tripled that of the same period last year. The company’s net profit weighed in at $314 million, besting its predecessor’s $110 million take largely due to the increase in sales and much lower interest expenses than those incurred during the first quarter of 2022.

Those factors were able to outweigh the 12% increase in operating expenses that Boston Scientific racked up in the first three months of this year—the largest of which came from the nearly $200 million extra that the company put toward selling, general and administrative expenses for the quarter.

It also racked up $20 million in net charges from restructuring. Most recently, in February, the devicemaker filed a notice with the Texas Workforce Commission detailing the upcoming layoffs of 120 employees from a Houston facility it had inherited in its $1.25 billion acquisition in 2021 of heart monitor maker Preventice Solutions.

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