Solid earnings and tariff break awaken ResMed price
Sleep device manufacturer ResMed has confirmed an exemption to US tariffs, surging quarterly earnings and an enviable balance sheet, but the company's boss is not napping on the result.
The ASX-listed company lifted its third-quarter revenue eight per cent to $1.3 billion, boosted its earnings per share by more than a fifth and reported operating cash flow of $579 million.
"It's a great performance by the team - 10,000 'ResMedians' selling in 140 countries in this crazy environment that's going on right now," CEO Mick Farrell told AAP.
"But they just focus - laser focus."
The group makes devices and other products for people with sleep apnoea, insomnia and obstructive pulmonary disease - a potential target market of 2.3 billion people worldwide.
In markets where the $1300 starting price for a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine and a $200 mask are out of reach, ResMed offers a subscription service.
Shares in the company soared more than seven per cent after the earnings call, helped by an exemption to US tariffs, which could have impacted its manufacturing plants in Singapore and Australia.
ResMed's products are exempted by the Nairobi Protocol, launched in 1982 under then US president Ronald Reagan to protect products made for people with a disability.
US Customs and Border Protection reaffirmed ResMed's devices were tariff-free on April 5, two days after President Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs sent markets into a tailspin, wiping trillions of dollars from global markets.
"We are now bringing products over tariff-exempt and we'll continue to do so," Mr Farrell said.
Tariffs aside, global uncertainty and lumbering growth could affect consumer behaviour, but Mr Farrell was optimistic about maintaining momentum.
"We're not selling iPhones or Teslas or disposable electronic goods," he said.
"We're selling medical products that save your life."
Patients using ResMed's pressure machine therapy have a 37 per cent lower risk of death, according to meta-analysis in medical journal The Lancet.
The risk of death by heart attack for pressure machine patients fell by 55 per cent.
Mr Farrell had faith in global growth returning despite the US tariff turbulence, but in the meantime he was grateful for medical tech's position to weather the storm.
"Challenges breed opportunities, and people talk about luck, but ... luck is an overlap of preparation and opportunity," he said.
"And in that little Venn diagram I'm seeing a lot of luck could come our way."
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