St Jude Medical’s Second Quarter Earnings Sneak Peek

S&P 500 (NYSE:SPY) component St Jude Medical (NYSE:STJ) will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday, July 18, 2012. St. Jude Medical develops, manufactures and distributes cardiovascular medical devices.

St Jude Medical Earnings Preview Cheat Sheet

Wall St. Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is for net income of 87 cents per share, a rise of 2.4% from the company’s actual earnings for the year-ago quarter. During the past three months, the average estimate has moved down from 89 cents. Between one and three months ago, the average estimate moved down. It has been unchanged at 87 cents during the last month. For the year, analysts are projecting profit of $3.46 per share, a rise of 5.5% 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 3 cents, reporting net income of 86 cents per share against a mean estimate of profit of 83 cents per share.

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Stock Price Performance: From June 13, 2012 to July 16, 2012, the stock price rose $2.42 (6.68%), from $36.24 to $38.66. The stock price saw one of its best stretches over the last year between January 23, 2012 and February 1, 2012, when shares rose for eight straight days, increasing 8.9% (+$3.44) over that span. It saw one of its worst periods between December 7, 2011 and December 19, 2011 when shares fell for nine straight days, dropping 14.1% (-$5.28) over that span.

Analyst Ratings: With 16 analysts rating the stock a buy, none rating it a sell and 11 rating the stock a hold, there are indications of a bullish stance by analysts.

Wall St. Revenue Expectations: Analysts predict a decline of 1.4% in revenue from the year-earlier quarter to $1.43 billion.

Balance Sheet Analysis: The company’s current ratio of assets to liabilities came in at 3.31 last quarter. Having a ratio above 2:1 is usually considered a good indicator of a company’s liquidity and ability to meet creditor demands. The company improved this liquidity measure from 3.19 in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year to the last quarter driven in part by an increase in current assets. Current assets increased 3.8% to $3.52 billion while liabilities rose by 0.2% to $1.06 billion.

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(Company fundamentals by Xignite Financials. Earnings estimates provided by Zacks)

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