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Medtech earnings season is drawing to a close, but there are still a handful of important prints coming up.
Here are five medtech companies whose earnings results have broader implications for the industry. Notable developments to watch include if Zimmer Biomet’s report upholds current orthopedics patterns, an update on Masimo’s patent fight with Apple, and whether companies were impacted by the rise of weight-loss drugs and anti-corruption activities in China.
1. Zimmer Biomet
Zimmer Biomet is the last of four large orthopedic device manufacturers to report results. The earnings of the other three companies — Johnson & Johnson, Smith & Nephew and Stryker — suggest Zimmer will be affected by the seasonal shift in demand for orthopedic devices, analysts at RBC Capital Markets wrote in a note to investors. Zimmer’s guidance foresees a quarter-on-quarter dip in sales.
While seasonality weighed on demand at Zimmer’s rivals, their results also showed “positive utilization trends and backlog” remain underlying strengths of the sector, the analysts wrote. The trends may help Ivan Tornos as he settles into his new role as CEO of Zimmer.
Analysts at J.P. Morgan want Tornos to increase Zimmer’s “sustainable organic sales growth rate from 4% to 5%,” a target they believe can be met through “a series of small to medium-sized M&A deals, supplemented by internal R&D.”
Zimmer reports its third-quarter results Tuesday morning.
2. BD
Becton Dickinson is coming off a third quarter in which sales and earnings beat analyst expectations. BD, which reports its results Thursday, attributed its performance in the last quarter to growth across its medical and interventional businesses, while noting that questions about “how health systems, governments, distributors and suppliers are managing inflation, inventory and other supply chain dynamics” were creating uncertainty.
The company’s fourth-quarter results will provide new information about how those forces are affecting BD, as well as details of the impact of the July 510(k) clearance for its updated BD Alaris infusion system. Upgrading or replacing Alaris devices in the U.S. is expected to take years, and the financial results could show how BD’s early efforts are going.
“We do think F4Q23 should fall in-line to above current consensus even as we’re starting off a touch below Street numbers,” J.P. Morgan analysts wrote in a recent note to investors. “Our revenue forecast of $4.99B (+5.0% organic) comes in $27M below but should set a conservative bar as competitor commentary has highlighted a healthy environment for both capital and procedures.”