Investopedia: Covidien Delivers Again

Maybe Covidien (NYSE:COV) goes overlooked because it doesn't have a hype-growth (or hyper-growth, if you prefer) market like surgical robotics or transcathether heart valves. On the other hand, it also doesn't have a big reliance on stagnant markets like orthopedics, stents, or implantable cardioverter defibrillators to weigh it down. Though Covidien admittedly lacks some pizazz, this continues to be an underrated and under-appreciated med-tech name that could deliver solid returns to a patient investor.

A Respectable Close to the Year  
Although Covidien didn't blow the doors off in its fiscal fourth quarter, its core performance, in a weak healthcare market, nonetheless holds up well against rivals like Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), Bard CR (NYSE:BCR), Becton Dickinson (NYSE:BDX) and Stryker (NYSE:SYK). Reported growth of 15% certainly looked awesome, but sizable chunks of that were due to currency and an extra week in the quarter. Strip that away, and organic growth was a bit above 3% - not terrible in this market, but certainly not 15% either.

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