St. Jude Medical Q4 Profit Down; Sees Q1, FY16 Earnings Below View - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - St. Jude Medical Inc. (STJ) Wednesday reported that its fourth-quarter net earnings attributable to the company declined to $113 million from last year's $245 million. Earnings per share fell to $0.39 from $0.84 last year.

Adjusted attributable net earnings were $1.02 per share, compared to $1.08 per share a year ago.

On average, 24 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $1.01 per share. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

The company reported net sales of $1.45 billion in the quarter, a 1 percent increase over net sales of $1.44 billion a year ago. On a constant-currency basis, net sales increased by 7 percent over the fourth quarter of 2014. Analysts expected $1.47 billion sales.

Looking ahead, the company expects its consolidated adjusted net earnings for the first quarter of 2016 to be in the range of $0.87 to $0.89 per share and full-year 2016 consolidated adjusted net earnings to be in the range of $3.95 to $4.05. Analysts expect earnings of $0.94 per share for the first quarter and $4.14 per share for fiscal 2016.

For the full-year 2016, the Company expects total sales to grow in the range of 2 percent to 4 percent on a comparable constant currency basis with currency negatively impacting full-year 2016 sales by approximately $120 million to $140 million.

The company expects comparable constant currency sales growth in the first quarter of 2016 to be flat to slightly up.