ZOLL Medical Corporation (ZOLL), a cardiovascular devices company, announced preliminary second quarter financial results. The company currently anticipates about $90 - $92 million, down about 8% from revenues in the same period last year. The company currently anticipates second quarter earnings to be in the range of $0.05 to $0.10 per share, falling below the consensus earnings estimate of $0.24.
Company’s revenues fell short of expectations primarily due to lower than expected sales to the North American hospital market including less than expected military revenues. Additionally, revenues from the sale of AEDs were lower than anticipated.
Commenting on the results, Richard A. Packer, chief executive officer of ZOLL, stated, “We were disappointed with our lower than expected revenue during the quarter. Excluding U.S. Military revenues, North American hospital revenues decreased by more than 30% compared to the second quarter of fiscal 2008. Although it appears that the order rate did improve sequentially as compared to the first quarter of 2009, they fell well below our expectations as customers continue to proceed cautiously with capital spending.”
Packer added, “There were some successes during the quarter. We were very pleased to see continued strength in our LifeVest revenue as we continue to invest in our sales and marketing resources in this business. Revenue for the LifeVest during the first half of this fiscal year grew more than 70% as compared to the first half of last year.” Mr. Packer also noted, “First half AutoPulse sales have grown approximately 35% over the same period last year.”
Packer added, “We have taken, and will continue to take actions within our core business to contain spending, as we now believe these economic conditions will continue to have an impact on our business throughout the remainder of 2009.”
Looking forward, Packer concluded, “While we expect our core defibrillation business will continue to be soft for the rest of the year, we believe we will see significant growth from other product areas, particularly the LifeVest, during the second half of 2009 versus 2008.