Med Tech Earnings Calls In Brief

Guidant restructures to cover stents: Guidant will take a Q3 charge of $50 mil.-$70 mil. to cover severance and benefits packages for employees terminated to offset declining coronary stent sales. Lay-offs will be company-wide, but will especially hit the firm's vascular intervention unit and manufacturing plants in Temecula and Santa Clara, Calif. Stent revenue fell 46% to $120 mil. in Q2 compared with the same quarter of 2003. The product category is expected to account for 13% of Guidant's business in 2004 and 10% in 2005 - down from 23% last year. Increasing popularity of drug-eluting stents dragged down revenue, as did competitive pressures in Japan, where the firm experienced a 60% decline in stent sales. Improved sales of ICDs likely will compensate for the declines. Guidant expects the defibrillators to compose 47% of total sales in 2004 and 51% in 2005 - up from 41% in 2003. Excluding a charge of $49 mil. for in-process R&D, the firm earned $185 mil. on sales of $938.8 mil. Guidant expects Q3 revenue to be $890 mil.-$930 mil. For the year, the firm forecasts revenue of $3.65 bil.-$3.75 bil. For fiscal 2005, sales are projected to be $3.9 bil.-$4.1 bil...