Shares in Intersect ENT (NSDQ:XENT) fell slightly today even though the drug-device company met expectations on Wall Street with its 4th quarter results.
The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company pared losses to -$4.8 million, or -17¢ per share, on sales of $24.2 million for the 3 months ended Dec. 31, for bottom-line growth of 15.8% on sales growth of 28.7% compared with the same period last year.
Adjusted to exclude 1-time items, earnings per share were -17¢, ahead of consensus on The Street, where analysts were looking for sales of $23.1 million.
“We are pleased to have delivered another strong year in 2016 both in terms of commercial success and pipeline progress, highlighted by positive results in 2 pivotal randomized clinical trials,” president & CEO Lisa Earnhardt said in prepared remarks. “We look forward to continuing to deliver innovative solutions to the ENT community in 2017 by expansion of Propel use, bolstered by the frontal indication and the upcoming Propel Contour launch, combined with pursuit of FDA approval of the Resolve product. Our long-term goal remains the treatment of chronic sinusitis patients across the continuum of care.”
Intersect said it expects to bring in sales of $87 million to $89 million for the full year of 2017 and $19 million to $19.5 million for the 1st quarter of this year.
“XENT is one of the more exciting small-cap medtech rev growth acceleration stories in our view with a pipeline that is on track to start contributing in 2Q17 and potential to drive meaningfully increasing sales momentum into 2018 & beyond,” Leerink Partners analysts Richard Newitter and Ravi Misra wrote in a report.
XENT shares were trading at $13.40 apiece today in morning activity, down -1.5%.
Last week, Intersect won FDA approval for its Propel Contour steroid-releasing implant for the treatment of chronic sinusitis in the frontal and maxillary sinsuses.
The company’s portfolio of steroid-releasing implants are used in patients undergoing ethmoid, frontal or maxillary surgeries to treat chronic sinusitis.
Data from an 80-patient study supported the implant’s approval, according to Intersect. The Progress study, which evaluated the safety and efficacy of the implant following surgery, met its primary efficacy endpoint and demonstrated a statistically significant relative reduction in the need for post-operative interventions compared to surgery alone.
