What happened

Shares of NxStage Medical (NXTM), a medical device company focused on renal care, rose by 11% as of 10:53 a.m. EDT on Thursday. 

Image source: Getty Images.

So what

The bullish move is traceable to the company's expectation-beating third-quarter results.

Revenue for the period came in at $92 million, which was up 6% over the same quarter last year. This figure surpassed the high end of management's previously announced guidance range and also exceeded Wall Street's expectation of roughly $2 million. 

The stronger-than-expected top-line result led to success on the bottom line, too. The company's quarterly net loss was just $166,000, which was much better than the $1 million to $3 million loss it had forecasted. That produced a breakeven result on a per-share basis, exceeding analyst expectations of a $0.04 loss.

NxStage's founder and CEO, Jeffrey Burbank, was quite pleased with his company's performance and remained upbeat about its future prospects, saying, "We remain confident in our outlook for 2017 and beyond that includes targets for increasing the company's revenue growth and profitability. I believe we have a solid foundation, compelling growth drivers and an amazing technology pipeline."

Now what

Turning to the fourth quarter, management projects total revenue to come in right around $92 million, which should lead to a net loss between $1 million to $2 million, in line with what Wall Street was expecting. However, the company now believes that its full-year net loss will be between $4 million to $5 million, the midpoint of which is roughly 50% less than it had previously communicated. That's much lower than the $7.7 million loss that the Street anticipated.

Given the better-than-expected results and upbeat outlook, it is easy to understand why shareholders are feeling so bullish today.