Boston Scientic Reports Better Than Expected Earnings (BSX)

Boston Scientific Corporation

reported earnings of 20 cents per share during the fourth quarter on revenues of $2 billion. Wall Street had expected earnings of 10 cents per share on revenues of $1.99 billion. It also said that it sees first quarter earnings of 7-10 cents per share on revenues of $1.825-$1.925 billion. It said it sees full year 2011earnings per share of 50-60 cents per share on revenues of $7.5-$7.9 billion. "We've made significant progress in our strategy to realign our portfolio through the execution of our Priority Growth Initiatives, with four targeted acquisitions and a divestiture," said Ray Elliott, President and Chief Executive Officer of Boston Scientific. "These acquisitions add promising new technologies to our portfolio and bolster our internal pipeline, which we expect will deliver more than 150 new products through 2015. Proceeds from the divestiture of our Neurovascular business provide us with increased flexibility to fund acquisitions and pay down debt. Nevertheless, we expect 2011 to be a difficult but necessary transition year in part driven by a worsening pricing environment and uncertainty in procedural volumes." The stock is moving in the after hours, gaining 13 cents to $7.26, a gain of 1.8%.