St Jude Medical Third Quarter Earnings Sneak Peek

S&P 500 (NYSE:SPY) component St Jude Medical (NYSE:STJ) will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday, October 17, 2012. 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 80 cents per share, a rise of 2.6% from the company’s actual earnings for the same quarter a year ago. During the past three months, the average estimate has moved down from 82 cents. Between one and three months ago, the average estimate moved down. It has been unchanged at 80 cents during the last month. For the year, analysts are projecting profit of $3.43 per share, a rise of 4.6% 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 one cent, reporting net income of 88 cents per share against a mean estimate of profit of 87 cents per share.

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Stock Price Performance: Between July 18, 2012 and October 11, 2012, the stock price rose $4.94 (13.1%), from $37.75 to $42.69. The stock price saw one of its best stretches over the last year between September 10, 2012 and September 19, 2012, when shares rose for eight straight days, increasing 9.8% (+$3.84) 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.

Wall St. Revenue Expectations: On average, analysts predict $1.34 billion in revenue this quarter, a decline of 2.9% from the year-ago quarter. Analysts are forecasting total revenue of $5.56 billion for the year, a decline of 0.9% from last year’s revenue of $5.61 billion.

Analyst Ratings: With 17 analysts rating the stock a buy, none rating it a sell and eight rating the stock a hold, there are indications of a bullish stance by analysts.

Balance Sheet Analysis: The company’s current ratio of assets to liabilities came in at 3.59 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.

A Look Back: In the second quarter, profit rose 1.3% to $244 million (78 cents a share) from $240.9 million (72 cents a share) the year earlier, exceeding analyst expectations. Revenue fell 2.5% to $1.41 billion from $1.45 billion.

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

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