Philips discloses conflict with U.S. over defibrillators along with fourth-quarter earnings

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Medical equipment maker Philips on Tuesday disclosed a conflict with the U.S. government over defibrillators it sold prior to 2015, along with fourth quarter earnings in which it missed analysts' estimates.

Philips repeated its medium term financial targets of 4 percent to 6 percent average comparable sales growth and a 1 percent improvement in adjusted EBITA margin per year despite the defibrillator matter, which it said was civil, not criminal, and would "have a significant impact" on that business.

The company reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, and amortisation (EBITA) of 1 billion euros ($1.08 billion) compared to 842 million euros in the same period a year earlier. Sales rose 3 percent to 7.24 billion euros.

Analysts polled for Reuters forecast the EBITA figure at 1.04 billion euros and sales at 7.28 billion euros.

($1 = 0.9301 euros)

(Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)