Medtronic ended its fiscal year with nominal sales growth and a steep profit drop, but analysts who cover the medical device company are confident a windfall is ahead, thanks to a strong lineup of upcoming products.
Medtronic’s pipeline of products could reverse sales plateau
The medical device company’s PulseSelect technology for atrial fibrillation treatment could bump Medtronic out of its relatively flat sales from this fiscal year.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
May 23, 2024 at 8:08PM
On a conference call with analysts Thursday, Medtronic CEO Geoff Martha highlighted some recent approvals from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), including a new system for treating atrial fibrillation (AFib). That device — PulseSelect — secured FDA approval in December, marking the first U.S. approval for pulsed field ablation (PFA) technology.
“It’s off to a strong start,” Martha said of PFA being an area for growth.
Doctors could use PulseSelect in a minimally invasive procedure to pulse electric fields that isolate the pulmonary veins for treatment AFib, an irregular heartbeat that can impede blood flow. Traditional ablation treatment for AFib heats or cools atrial tissue and could cause more damage to surrounding anatomy. More than 6 million Americans suffer from AFib, according to Medtronic. Development for the product began in 2006.
John Boylan, senior equity analyst with St. Louis-based Edward Jones, said he sees a lot of promise in Medtronic’s pipeline of products, including PulseSelect.
“Longer term, we think they’re in good shape,” Boylan said, adding in his written research notes “overall, we believe Medtronic has a solid lineup of new products that include heart repair products, diabetes products, an ongoing launch of a surgical robot outside the U.S. and other new devices.”
Medtronic — based in Ireland but with operational headquarters in Fridley — reported Thursday income of $659 million at the end of its fourth quarter and fiscal year April 26, down nearly 50% from a year ago. Boylan said currency exchange losses were one factor that hurt overall revenue — $8.6 billion, just a slight increase from the year prior — as Medtronic reported a negative impact of $75 million in the quarter because if it.
Medtronic’s diabetes division saw nearly 11% sales gain, the strongest of any of the company’s lines of business. Sales for its structural heart and aortic business, however, dropped more than 20%. Previously, the company’s sales growth had been largely unchanged all year with Medtronic reporting sales gains of around 5% for the first three quarters of the year.
Some Medtronic competitors are seeing stronger sales gains. Last month, medical device maker Boston Scientific Corp. reported a 13.8% gain on sales for the first quarter.
Medtronic’s stock was down more than 5% after trading Thursday.
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