Shares in Medtronic slump after poor quarterly sales growth

US medical device maker Medtronic fell around 6% in pre-market trading on Wall Street after reporting its quarterly results on Tuesday before the bell.

The company narrowed its full-year forecast after revenue grew much slower than what analysts estimated for its second quarter.

Medtronic posted quarterly sales growth of 4% to $7.34bn from the same period a year ago, falling short of the $7.46bn predicted by Wall Street ahead of their release.

Chairman and CEO Omar Ishrak said that the results were "disappointing", but said the company faced some strong headwinds.

"Q2 revenue was disappointing and did not meet our expectations. We faced issues that affected our growth, including slower than expected revenue as we await new product introductions, particularly in CVG and Diabetes," Ishrak said.

"Despite this revenue shortfall, we produced a strong improvement in operating margins and double digit constant currency earnings per share growth."

The rest of Medtronic's earnings report was largely in line with estimates, including an 111% increase in net income to $1.11bn. Diluted earnings per share were 80 cents, with analysts having forecast 80.6 cents.

The recent acquisition of competitor HeartWare for $1.1bn allowed for the boost in income in the second quarter.