Hospira Shares Popped: What You Need to Know

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of drug and medical device maker Hospira (NYS: HSP) spiked 10% today after the company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter results.

So what: Excluding one-time losses related to the company's attempt to regain compliance with its Rocky Mount manufacturing facility, Hospira reported a profit of $0.51 on sales of $1.01 billion. This easily surpassed Wall Street's expectation of $0.45 on sales of $954 million. The company cited strength in its specialty injectable pharmaceutical products as the reason behind its strong earnings and 2% year-over-year revenue growth.

Now what: Although I continue to support purchasing medical device makers for the long-term, Hospira itself isn't too high on my list of potential buys largely because of the problems it has suffered at Rocky Mount. However, I may be willing to give it another look once it has resolved those issues. For now, watch and patiently wait for Hospira to get back in the good graces of the FDA.

Craving more input? Start by adding Hospira to your free and personalized watchlist so you can keep up on the latest news with the company.

At the time thisarticle was published Fool contributor Sean Williams has no material interest in any companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen name TMFUltraLong, track every pick he makes under the screen name TrackUltraLong, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle @TMFUltraLong. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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