St. Jude Medical, Inc., said Wednesday that its profits in the first quarter rose 12 percent compared to last year on increased sales growth.
 
The Little Canada-based medical device maker announced that net earnings for the first quarter, which ended March 29, totaled $249 million, or $0.86 per share, up 11.7 percent from $223 million, or $0.78 per share, during the same period in 2013. Earnings per share were $0.01 higher than what analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected.
 
Revenue, meanwhile, totaled $1.36 billion, up 1.5 percent from $1.34 billion in the first quarter of 2013. First-quarter revenue was about equal to analysts’ projections.

 
 “St. Jude Medical delivered a solid first quarter by meeting or exceeding our expectations in each of our technology platforms,” President and Chief Executive Officer Daniel Starks said in a statement. “These results reinforce our confidence that we are on track to accelerate sales growth as our product mix shifts to faster growing markets and as we continue to launch new products that improve patient outcomes, ensure the highest quality, and lower the costs of treating expensive epidemic diseases.”
 
Moving forward, St. Jude expects its second quarter revenue to increase to between $1.38 billion to $1.46 billion and its 2014 full year revenue to range between $5.61 billion to $5.76 billion.
 
Shares of St. Jude’s stock were trading down about 2.3 percent at $61.78 per share Wednesday afternoon.
 
St. Jude was recently named among the 50 “Best Employers In America” based on employee salary and job satisfaction.