ICUI ICU Medical Inc

By Maria Armental 

Medical-products company ICU Medical Inc., which had warned 2017 would be a "bumpy" year, on Wednesday gave financial projections that largely missed Wall Street targets, weighed down by costs as it brings into the fold what had been its largest customer.

The San Clemente, Calif. company last month bought Pfizer's global infusion therapy business, Hospira Infusion Systems, in a cash-and-stock deal that turned Pfizer into ICU Medical's largest shareholder.

The biggest challenge, officials said, is IT conversion and the goal is to improve margins -- then work on overall results.

"Our bias at the moment is to spend more if needed to enable the integration faster," Chief Executive Vivek Jain said in a conference call with analysts.

Mr. Janis said the company had found high-quality research and development talent but also some problems, including inertia and some "mistaken fondness for some corporate largesse."

Asked whether the rationale for the deal still made sense, Mr. Janis said: "Economically, putting aside all the strategy stuff, relative to the cards we were holding, it was the right thing to do."

This year, ICU Medical said it expects to make $3.55 to $3.90 a share in adjusted profit on $1.2 billion to $1.25 billion in revenue, compared with analysts' projected $3.97 a share on $1.31 billion in revenue.

In 2016, the company made $4.88 a share in adjusted profit on $379.4 million in sales.

The revenue surge is largely due to the Hospira acquisition.

The infusion therapy business, ICU Medical's main cash driver, reported a 6.1% revenue increase in the most recent period.

Mr. Jain said in the first six weeks of the year company officials had seen a "slight slowdown" to growth rates.

"A few weeks do not make a trend, but it just feels a touch lighter to me," Mr. Jain said.

Over all, fourth-quarter profit surged to $9.5 million, or 54 cents a share. Excluding stock-based compensation, restructuring costs and other items, profit rose to $1.20 a share from 96 cents a year earlier.

Meanwhile, revenue rose 6% to $95.7 million.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected $1.19 on $94.4 million in revenue.

Shares closed Wednesday at $152.30, up nearly two-thirds over the past 12 months.

Write to Maria Armental at maria.armental@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 01, 2017 21:55 ET (02:55 GMT)

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