Shares in Dexcom (NSDQ:DXCM) soared today after the medical device maker topped expectations on Wall Street with its third quarter results.
The San Diego, Calif.-based company posted a net loss of -$2 million, or -2¢ per share, on sales of $184.6 million for the 3 months ended Sept. 30, for sales growth of 24% compared with the same period last year.
Adjusted to exclude 1-time items, earnings per share were -4¢, ahead of consensus on The Street, where analysts were looking for sales of $184.2 million.
“Our momentum this year carried through the third quarter, and we remain focused on driving the value proposition of DexCom’s real-time CGM to people with diabetes around the world,” president & CEO Kevin Sayer said in prepared remarks. “We are well positioned on a number of key initiatives, including the rollout of therapeutic CGM to the Medicare population and continued international expansion.”
Leerink analysts Danielle Antalffy and Rebecca Wang wrote in a note to investors that Dexcom’s continued growth will depend on its ability to capture the CGM market, especially given the latest regulatory win for Dexcom’s competitor, Abbott (NYSE:ABT).
“And given the meaningful competitive ‘noise’ in the market with the recent approval of ABT’s [MP] cheaper Libre, DXCM took the opportunity to guide FY2017 sales to the low end of management’s $710M-$740M guidance range,” the analysts wrote.
“Despite the Libre ‘noise,’ we did see what we believe are at the very least encouraging datapoints in the quarter: International strength continued, with y/y growth accelerating to over 80%. This sustained strength is encouraging as it is in these international markets where DXCM is currently competing head-to-head with Libre – and has been for 3 years – and is still managing to deliver strong growth (albeit off much smaller numbers).”
DXCM shares closed at $47.72 apiece today, up 6.4%.
