Why LeMaitre Vascular Is Soaring

What happened

After the company reported fourth-quarter and full-year results, shares of LeMaitre Vascular (NASDAQ:LMAT), a medical device company focused on vascular surgery, jumped 18% as of 10:15 a.m. EST on Wednesday.

So what

Here are the headline numbers from the quarter:

Sales grew 9% to $28.4 million. That was well ahead of the $25.9 million that analysts had projected. Operating income surged 14% to $7.2 million. Net income grew 41% to $6 million, or $0.30 per share. That figure blew past the $0.20 that Wall Street was expecting. The board of directors approved a 21% increase to the quarterly dividend and gave the thumbs-up to repurchasing $10 million shares of common stock.

Zooming out to the full year, here's how the company performed in 2018:

Revenue jumped 5% to $105.6 million. That was solidly ahead of the $103 million that was expected. Net income grew 34% to $22.9 million. However, the bulk of the increase is attributable to one-time gains on business divestitures and acquisitions. EPS jumped 31% to $1.13. This was comfortably above the $1.04 that market watchers were expecting.

Image source: Getty Images.

Turning to guidance, here's what management is predicting about the quarter and year ahead:

First-quarter 2019 sales are expected to grow about 8% to a range of $27.7 million to $28.5 million. That's ahead of the current estimate of $27.2 million. First-quarter 2019 EPS is expected to land between $0.18 and $0.20. The midpoint of this range is slightly behind the $0.20 that was expected. Full-year 2019 sales are expected to grow about 8% to $113 million to $114.4 million. That's also ahead of the $110.3 million that was predicted. Full-year 2019 EPS is expected to be in the range of $0.82 to $0.86. This range compares favorably to the $0.81 expectation.

Given the better-than-expected results and guidance, it isn't hard to figure out why shares of this beaten-down gem are getting a boost today.

Now what

LeMaitre's results should go a long way to prove to Wall Street that this is the same Steady Eddie growth business that it has always been. While shares are no longer a screaming bargain, my view is that this is still a high-quality business that buy-and-hold investors should get to know.