St Jude Medical Fourth Quarter Earnings Sneak Peek

S&P 500 (NYSE:SPY) component St Jude Medical (NYSE:STJ) will unveil its latest earnings tomorrow, Wednesday, January 23, 2013. St. Jude Medical develops, manufactures and distributes cardiovascular medical devices.

St Jude Medical Earnings Preview Cheat Sheet

Wall St. Earnings Expectations: The average estimate of analysts is for net income of 90 cents per share, a rise of 4.7% from the company’s actual earnings for the same quarter a year ago. During the past three months, the average estimate has moved up from 87 cents. Between one and three months ago, the average estimate was unchanged. It has risen during the last month. For the year, analysts are projecting profit of $3.44 per share, a rise of 4.9% from last year.

Past Earnings Performance: The company has beaten estimates the last four quarters and is coming off a quarter where it topped forecasts by 2 cents, reporting net income of 83 cents per share against a mean estimate of profit of 81 cents per share.

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A Look Back: In the third quarter, profit fell 22.3% to $176 million (56 cents a share) from $226.5 million (69 cents a share) the year earlier, but exceeded analyst expectations. Revenue fell 4.1% to $1.33 billion from $1.38 billion.

Here’s how St Jude Medical traded following its last earnings report 3 months ago and leading up to its upcoming earnings report this week: