Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Seeking Alpha: Integra Hitting That Same Ortho Wall

There was no shortage of skeptics regarding Integra LifeSciences' (Nasdaq: IART) aggressive build-by-acquisition strategy during the past decade, myself included. To management's credit, while the company has quite a lot of debt for a med-tech, it has emerged as an appealing niche player in attractive markets in orthopedics and neurosurgery. While the company is currently suffering from the same sluggish markets that have stalled out bigger rivals like Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Stryker (NYSE: SYK), and Medtronic (NYSE: MDT), this is an interesting stock to watch for investors who want to go a little deeper than the well-known big-cap names.

Reality Bites Into The Third Quarter
In an orthopedics world where hip, knee, and spine competitors like Biomet, JNJ, Medtronic, Stryker, Zimmer (NYSE: ZMH), and Smith & Nephew (NYSE: SNN) largely seem to be spinning their wheels, Integra had looked pretty good with a growing spine, orthobiologics, and extremities business. Unfortunately, it looks like the ortho malaise is spreading to the extremities.

Read more here:
Integra Hitting That Same Ortho Wall

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