Boston Scientific reports mixed earnings, adjusts full-year outlook

Boston Scientific Corp. posted solid sales growth of 8.1% in the third quarter, but fell short on profit expectations.

The medical technology firm also adjusted its full-year guidance, reflecting the challenges of making business forecasts in an unstable economic environment.

Boston Scientific reported $0.43 a share — a penny lower than the consensus estimate from Wall Street analysts — on a profit of $174 million, down 57% from a year ago.

The company raised its full-year profit expectations by a few cents per share while tempering its sales growth outlook, which it now predicts will come in at the lower end of its previously stated range of of 6.5% to 7.5%.

Six of the company's eight business divisions posted double-digit organic sales gains during the quarter. The company's stock closed up 1.2% Wednesday.

"I'm pleased with our team's ongoing commitment to executing our strategy, and the double-digit organic revenue growth we delivered across nearly every business," said Mike Mahoney, Boston Scientific's CEO, in a statement.

Despite a few bumps, analysts were largely upbeat.

"Despite the miss and slightly disappointing guidance, shares traded higher, as both sales and margins exceeded expectations and it appears that the outlook for 2023 and beyond hasn't changed materially," wrote Garrett Nelson, an analyst with Virginia-based CFRA Research, in a research note.

The company raised its full-year expectations in the first quarter before lowering them in the second, reflecting shifting economic conditions.

During the quarter, the company launched its Rezum water vapor therapy, a treatment for enlarged prostate, in Japan. The Rezum technology was developed in Minnesota by Maple Grove-based NxThera, which Boston Scientific acquired in 2018.

Boston Scientific employs about 8,400 people in Minnesota and 2,300 in its home state of Massachusetts.