Steris (NYSE:STE) beat The Street on both sales and profits in its fiscal third quarter and announced that CEO Walt Rosebrough will step down July 29, 2021.
The Dublin, Ireland-based sterilization and surgical products company posted profits of $114.5 million or $1.33 per share, on sales of $808.9 million for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2020, for a 9% bottom-line gain on a sales boost of 4.5%.
Adjusted to exclude one-time items, earnings per share were $1.73, 19¢ ahead of Wall Street, where analysts were looking for sales of $793 million.
Steris saw a sales increase of 13% in applied sterilization technologies, pushed by more business from medical device customers. The company also reported a 2.4% uptick in revenues for its healthcare segment, primarily because of lower operating expenses due to business disruption from COVID-19 and the favorable impact from the company’s November 2020 purchase of Key Surgical, a manufacturer of disposable hospital and surgical products. Lifesciences revenues also rose 2%.
Rosebrough, who has been CEO since 2007, will remain as CEO emeritus and senior advisor to Steris’ leadership and board for the next two years. He will be succeeded by current COO Dan Carestio.
“We are fortunate to have had Walt’s leadership for well over a decade, through some of the most challenging times in STERIS’s history,” said board chair Dr. Mohsen Sohi in a news release. “During Walt’s tenure, we have grown revenue three-fold, completed close to fifty acquisitions, added more than 8,000 people to our workforce and grown shareholder value nearly 10 times, adding over $14 billion of market capitalization. We are forever grateful for his contributions and look forward to continuing to have access to his counsel and expertise as an advisor to the board and senior management for the next two years.”
In addition to the Key Surgical acquisition, Rosebrough was at the helm when the company announced it plans to acquire Cantel Medical for $4.6 billion.
“I believe that Steris is stronger and better positioned than ever and has a very talented overall leadership team in place to continue to drive forward,” Rosebrough said of his successor. “Dan has been with Steris over 20 years with progressively increasing responsibilities in marketing, sales and general management. He drove our improvements in life sciences and applied sterilization technologies (AST) segments the past decade. He led the successful integration of the Synergy Health AST business, took on the additional leadership of our Healthcare IPT business when that leader retired, and finally, became responsible for all our operations as COO in 2018. The success of all three of our business segments since he became COO is a testament to Dan and the Streris leadership team. I am extremely confident that Dan is the right person to lead Steris into the future.”
Steris declined to release guidance for the remainder of its fiscal year 2021. Investors reacted by sending STE shares down -5.2% to $ 181.10 apiece today in early trading.
