What happened
Shares of LeMaitre Vascular (LMAT 1.65%), a provider of vascular devices and services, rose 19% as of 12:34 p.m. EDT on Thursday after the company posted better-than-expected earnings.
So what
Here's a review of the key quarterly highlights that got investors excited:
- Revenue jumped 19% to $24.1 million.
- Gross margin expanded by 100 basis points to 71.9%.
- Net income soared 49% to $3.2 million.
- Earnings per share rose 42% to $0.16.
- LeMaitre Vascular ended the quarter with $25.8 million in cash.
By contrast, Wall Street was only expecting $23.5 million in revenue and $0.15 in EPS, so the company managed a beat on both.
Image source: Getty Images.
Looking ahead, management offered up the following bullish guidance for the second quarter of 2017:
| Metric | Guidance | Growth Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Sales | $25.4 million | 13% |
| Gross margin | 70% | N/A |
| Operating income | $4.8 million | 27% |
| EPS | $0.17 | 27% |
Data source: LeMaitre Vascular.
For comparison, analysts were only projecting $25 million in revenue and $0.15 in EPS for the second quarter.
If that wasn't exciting enough, management also raised its 2017 full-year guidance:
| Metric | Old Guidance | New Guidance |
|---|---|---|
| Sales | $99 million | $100.5 million |
| Gross margin | 71.5% | 71.5% |
| Operating income | $20 million | $20 million |
| EPS | N/A | $0.70 |
Data source: LeMaitre Vascular.
These numbers also compare favorably to the $99 million in revenue $0.66 in EPS that Wall Street was expecting for 2017.
Now what
CEO George LeMaitre kept it simple with his commentary, stating, "We continue to pursue 10% annual reported sales growth and 20% annual operating income growth." Thus far he has been quite successful at producing those results, which is a big reason why his company's stock has utterly smashed the iShares Dow Jones US Medical Device ETF over the past few years.
If LeMaitre can continue to deliver on its stated goals, then it wouldn't surprise me one bit to see this stock continue to outperform from here.
