Medtronic shares drop after profit falls

Shares of Medtronic fell 1 percent Tuesday after the company reported a big drop in its third-quarter profit.

Net income for the big medical device maker fell 23 percent to $762 million, largely due to a nearly $200 million non-cash charge Medtronic took for its 2010 purchase of a California firm and its high blood pressure treatment. In clinical trials, the treatment has failed to reduce blood pressure enough to make it likely to win regulatory approval.

"Some of their technology development did not work out as planned," said Jeff Windau, an analyst with investment firm Edward Jones. "That has been announced before, so, it was expected," he added. "If you strip that and look overall, basically results came in as expected."

Overall, Medtronic's sales in the quarter rose 3 percent to about $4.2 billion. Sales increased at double-digit rates in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and China.

At one point Tuesday, Medtronic's stock price was down as much as 3 percent.