Investopedia: Can St. Jude Live Up To Newfound Expectations?

Investors run hot and cold on stocks all the time, but in all my time following St. Jude Medical (NYSE:STJ) I don't remember too many stretches where St. Jude was a favored name in the device space. That has all changed, though, and relatively quickly, as the company has managed to really sell Wall Street on the prospects for its deep pipeline. (For more on medical companies, check out Investing In Medical Equipment Companies.)

The company clearly has Wall Street's attention. Now the question is whether it can deliver on those promises. St. Jude does indeed have a deep pipeline and a good chance of being one of the most dynamic med-tech companies in the next few years (at least in terms of product launches). With so little underlying growth in many of its core markets, though, the company definitely has some work cut out for itself.  

Q1 Results: Not As Good As They Seem  
St. Jude reported $1.38 billion in first quarter sales, and that was spot-on with analyst expectations. The company's stated growth rate of 9% looks pretty good (as does the currency-neutral rate of 7.7%), but the organic growth picture isn't so impressive. Organic growth for the first quarter was more on the order of 2%, or a bit more than 4% if the some year-ago CRM business is netted out. Now, low-single-digit organic growth is not that out of line with the rest of the medical device sector, but "matching the market" is not the expectations out there for this name. 

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