In its concerted effort to increase shareholder's value,
medical devices major,
St. Jude Medical Inc.
(
STJ
) recently announced a share repurchase program to buyback up to
$1 billion of its outstanding common stock. The repurchase will
occur as per the company's convenience, either from the open
market, or through private negotiations or otherwise.
The company plans to fund the program with cash along with other
available liquidity. St. Jude exited the third quarter of 2012
with cash and cash equivalents of $1,051 million, 9.5% higher
than the previous year.
In order to uphold investor confidence, St. Jude repurchased 7.1
million of its common stock for $300 million in the third
quarter. The company also made dividend payments of 23 cents in
each of the last three quarters of 2012, representing a 10%
increase over the same periods in 2011.
Earlier, in its third quarter results, St. Jude had authorized a
share repurchase program of up to $300 million as a measure to
offset dilution related to stock compensation programs in 2013.
As of November 28, 2012, the company had roughly 308 million
issued and outstanding common shares.
For the fourth quarter, the company expects adjusted earnings in
the band of 86 cents-88 cents a share. For full-year 2012, St.
Jude forecasts adjusted earnings in the range of $3.42-$3.44 per
share from the earlier band of $3.40-$3.45. The share repurchase
program will allow the company to further leverage earning power
going forward.
Investors have accepted the news of the buyback program in a
positive light, as the company's shares increased 2.4% to $33.69
on November 29, 2012.
St. Jude, with a market cap of $10.38 billion, has maintained
robust growth rate over the past decade. We believe that new
product development and penetration into emerging markets will
drive long-term growth for the company.
The company is aggressively realigning its operating segments in
order to lower operating expenses as well as to hedge against the
upcoming MedTech tax from 2013. Moreover, we are impressed by the
company's efforts to deliver incremental returns to investors
leveraging its solid balance sheet, healthy free cash flow and
earnings power.
While the company is battling pricing pressure and declining
volumes in the domestic ICD market, it continues to have a
substantial market share in the worldwide CRM market along with
Boston Scientific
(
BSX
) and
Medtronic
(
MDT
).
Our long-term 'Neutral' recommendation on St. Jude is in
agreement with a short-term Zacks #3 Rank (Hold).
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