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Medtronic (MDT) Global Market Share Rises Amid Pandemic Blues

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Increase in adoption of Medtronic plc's (MDT - Free Report) globally-accepted advanced therapies is encouraging. The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Over the past three months, Medtronic has outperformed the industry. As per the last share-price movement, the stock has gained 5.5% as against the industry’s 1.5% depreciation.

Medtronic’s fourth-quarter fiscal 2021 earnings and revenues were both ahead of the respective Zacks Consensus Estimate. According to the company, most of the end markets are returning to near-normal pre-COVID growth. While some regions are still lagging due to the prevailing health crisis, momentum built strongly throughout the fourth quarter.

Medtronic's fiscal fourth-quarter results reflect a strong recovery from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on elective procedures that the company experienced in April 2020. The company continued to gain share in an increasing number of businesses, driven by differentiated product offerings. While the impact of COVID-19 on procedures, along with unfavorable timing of the quarter, mitigated some of the underlying market dynamics, Medtronic is still seeing a growing trend of share gains.

The gross and operating margins showed stupendous improvement on a year-over-year basis. The fiscal 2022 EPS and revenue guidance indicating strong growth buoys optimism.

On the flip side, Medtronic noted that while it expects the impact of the COVID resurgence to fizzle out, the pandemic’s impact on businesses in emerging markets still remains challenging to predict. This is because, in countries like India, Brazil and some parts of Southeast Asia, the virus is still ranging.

Amid the pandemic, Medtronic’s business has been adversely affected by three main factors. The first is the mix of urgent procedures versus those that are more deferrable. Almost all of Medtronic’s businesses have been affected by the decline in procedure volumes. Medtronic’s businesses that had a larger mix of products using urgent procedures saw an impact. However, the company noted that procedural volume started to rebound in the fiscal first quarter.
 
The second factor that hampered growth is the loss of large bulk purchases due to depressed demand related to the pandemic. The third factor is centered around capital equipment. While capital equipment represents a small amount of Medtronic’s overall revenues, there are certain businesses that have a higher mix and felt the impact of hospitals and surgery centers delaying their capital evaluation and purchases.

Key Picks

Better-ranked stocks from the broader medical space include PetIQ, Inc. (PETQ - Free Report) , National Vision Holdings, Inc. (EYE - Free Report) and Envista Holdings Corporation (NVST - Free Report) .

PetIQ, currently sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), has a long-term earnings growth rate of 25%. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

National Vision Holdings, which flaunts a Zacks Rank #1 at present, has a long-term earnings growth rate of 23%.

Envista Holdings, currently carrying a Zacks Rank of 2 (Buy), has a long-term earnings growth rate of 26.40 %.

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