Stryker Reports Stronger 4Q Than Expected

JP Morgan has published a research report on Stryker Corporation SYK after the company reported positive 4Q10 earnings results on Monday. In the report, JP Morgan writes "Stryker expects total 4Q revenues to come in at $1.995B (+8.8%), a full $50M above consensus and $30M ahead of our own $1.965B estimate. Currency was a $2M tailwind in the quarter compared to our estimate of an $11M drag. Even after adjusting for FX, however, we estimate that organic revenue growth still came in at 5.5% vs. our 4.7% forecast. Full year 2010 adjusted EPS is expected to come in at $3.31-3.33 (+12.0-12.7%), ahead of both the Street's $3.29 and our forecast of $3.30. Of note, Stryker repurchased 6.1M shares in 4Q (+$0.01 of upside relative to our forecast), after repurchasing just 2.2M shares in the first 9 months of the year." Stryker is scheduled to present at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference at 10:30 EST on Tuesday, January 11th. JP Morgan maintains its Neutral rating on Stryker, which closed yesterday at $54.70.