Smith & Nephew confident after fourth-quarter profit rise
LONDON, Feb 5 (Reuters) - British artificial hip and knee maker Smith & Nephew (LSE: SN.L - news) posted a 7 percent rise in trading profit in the fourth quarter, and said it was confident it would grow both revenue and its trading profit margin in 2015.
The company reported trading profit of $325 million for the three months to Dec. 31 on revenue up 2 percent on an underlying basis to $1.25 billion, resulting in adjusted earnings per share of 25.6 cents.
Analysts were expecting revenue of $1.27 billion and trading profit of $320 million, according to a company-supplied consensus. (Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Neil Maidment)