Things are shaping up nicely in the medical products market of late, with three standout companies hitting all-time highs and contributing to a new statistic that shows the healthcare sector is among those with the highest percentages of organizations achieving earnings far above estimates. The sector’s non-cyclical status, meaning it is always in vogue regardless of market or economic conditions, makes the ups and downs typical in any market less of a threat to its consistently excellent returns.
Speaking to the upward trajectory seen in this space recently, James Ferraioli, a Market Strategist at Morgan Stanley, said, “Increasingly sophisticated and connected medical devices are driving improvements in convenience and care. For example, wire-free adhesive heart monitors can now capture cardiac data and transmit it to a patient’s doctor, and pacemakers can relay data wirelessly to a patient’s smartphone.”
Medtech maven Stryker, whose gear is seemingly ubiquitous in clinics, has bounced back from a relatively lackluster 2020 due to hospitals shuttering elective procedures and can now boast of a market capitalization totaling $110.14 billion. Boston Scientific also had a somewhat rough first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, but its growth-through-acquisition strategy helped turn the tables. The company’s series of consolidations and breakouts over the past year laid the foundation for an annual return of 15.9%, with the most recent three months seeing shares rally by 10.6%. The third stalwart of the sector, CGM specialist DexCom, has leveraged the convenience of its ever-popular diabetes treatment solutions and come forward with a bullish gameplan where the current base undercut previous structure lows.
