NuVasive Likely Undervalued, But It's Hard To Find Catalysts

Valuation alone doesn't move stocks - expensive stocks don't fall just because they're expensive, and cheap stocks don't rise just because investors suddenly decide they're too cheap. In most cases, it requires some sort of driver or catalyst to get investors to reconsider a name, and that's a challenge for NuVasive (NASDAQ:NUVA) today.

The shares of this spine-focused medical device company do look undervalued today, but they've looked undervalued for a while. Although the shares have slightly outperformed the broader medical device space since my last update and outperformed names like Alphatec (ATEC) and SeaSpine (SPNE) while recently starting to lag Globus (GMED), they still haven't done anything to celebrate over the last five years.

NuVasive is salvageable, but the company's management needs to offer more than what is apparent today - investors need to have a reason to believe in growth drivers beyond the cervical portfolio and that long-awaited margin improvement will actually materialize. While this could happen, there's a real risk that "okay, but not great" growth and margins keep a lid on the share price performance at NuVasive.

 

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NuVasive Likely Undervalued, But It's Hard To Find Catalysts