(RTTNews) - Medical equipment maker ZOLL Medical Corp. (ZOLL: News ), Tuesday reported a plunge in fourth quarter profit, hurt by lower margins and higher expenses, despite higher revenues. Earnings and revenues, however, came in above estimates.

For the fourth quarter, net income of Chelmsford, Massachusetts-based ZOLL Medica plunged 62% to $3.40 million from $8.86 million in the same quarter a year ago. Earnings per share fell 61% to $0.16 from $0.41 in the year-ago quarter.

On average, six analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.08 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimate typically excludes one-time items.

Revenues for the quarter increased 2% to $107.87 million from $105.60 million in the year ago quarter, surpassing Street estimates of $98.70 million.

Revenues reflects a negative foreign exchange impact of approximately $1.4 million and approximately $5 million of revenue derived from newly acquired Temperature Management business.

Fourth-quarter sales to the North American market decreased 2% to $79.1 million, while International sales increased by 17% to $28.8 million. Sales to the U.S. Military increased to $8.9 million, compared to $5.9 million in the prior year.

Gross margin for the fourth quarter was 50%, compared to 55% in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008.
Total expenses increased to $49.91 million from $44.26 million in the year-ago quarter. Income from operations was $3.66 million, down from $14.03 million in the prior-year quarter.

Commenting further on the year, Richard Packer, Chief Executive Officer said, "While the Hospital and EMS environments are challenging for us, we did see sequential growth in both businesses. We continued to experience softness in the public access AED market, where we saw a modest sequential decline versus Q3. The military business was strong as we completed one contingency contract with the U.S. government and started a new one at the start of fiscal 2010."

For full-year 2009, net income dropped to $9.56 million or $0.45 per share from $23.44 million or $1.10 per share in the year-ago period. Revenues decreased to $385.19 million from $398.02 million in the prior-year period.

Analysts expected earnings of $0.37 per share, on revenues of $376.03 million.

ZOLL closed Tuesday's regular trading at $20.33, down $0.02 or 0.10%, on a volume of 0.13 million shares.

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by RTT Staff Writer

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