Seeking Alpha: Stryker Continues To Reap The Benefits Of A Strong Model

In a generally lackluster big-cap med-tech market, Stryker (NYSE:SYK) has stood out as a comparatively strong performer. Given the company's broad-based business mix, as well as its willingness to deploy capital into M&A to improve the business, I believe investors can reasonably expect this company to continue to be a solid operational story within the space. Stryker's positive qualities are seldom forgotten, though, and while I wouldn't call the shares overvalued, I don't see them as undervalued either.

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Stryker Continues To Reap The Benefits Of A Strong Model

The Motley Fool: Stryker Corporation Stock Coming Through With Growth

Stryker (NYSE: SYK  ) has been a fairly strong stock this year, and why not? The company addresses several attractive markets within med-tech and shown a willingness (and capability) to effectively deploy capital toward business-building M&A transactions. Although price weakness, particularly in ortho, is a concern and the stock's valuation isn't a screaming bargain, Stryker likely won't be a bad place to be relative to the sector.

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Stryker Corporation Stock Coming Through With Growth

The Motley Fool: Is This Huge Market Slowing Down?

Waiting for a recovery in the orthopedic market isn't exactly waiting for Godot, but it has been frustrating all the same. Between modest (but steady) price pressure, lower patient volumes, and more assertive hospital customers, major ortho companies like Zimmer (NYSE: ZMH  ) , Stryker (NYSE: SYK  ) , and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ  ) have had their work cut out to generate better results from what has historically been one of the largest medical device markets, and a profitable one at that. 

As the second quarter earnings cycle revs up, Biomet has started things off with its fiscal fourth quarter report. Although there's nothing in the report that should worry Zimmer investors (Zimmer is in the process of trying to get regulatory approvals for its acquisition of Biomet), there is likewise not a lot to really encourage investors hoping for a major return to growth in the quarter.

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Is This Huge Market Slowing Down?

The Motley Fool: Why Stryker Should Buy Smith & Nephew

The M&A wheel continues to turn in med-tech, spurred on in part by the reality that making money the old fashioned way ("earning it", for those too young to remember the John Houseman commercials) is getting harder and harder. The latest rumor, that Stryker (NYSE: SYK  ) was taking a look at Smith & Nephew (NYSE: SNN  ) , was not only confirmed by Stryker but goes to show the depth of consolidation in med-tech as maturing markets leave fewer and fewer opportunities for sub-scale players.

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Why Stryker Should Buy Smith & Nephew

The Motley Fool: Does Stryker's Skid Offer a Buying Opportunity?

Long-term investing is generally the way to go, but that does not mean that investors shouldn't take advantage of short-term moves that work in their favor. Stryker (NYSE: SYK  ) remains a very well-run company in the med-tech space, with good exposure to orthopedics, surgical instruments, and neurology, but a recent slide in the stock appears to have opened up a little window of opportunity in the shares.

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Does Stryker's Skid Offer a Buying Opportunity?

Seeking Alpha: MAKO Surgical - Growth Investors Should Buy On Pullback

It's not exactly Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) 2.0, but MAKO Surgical (MAKO) is a growing med-tech name that investors would do well to research. Today's valuation is too rich, but just as Intuitive has given investors some pullbacks so too will MAKO in the future.

Q4 Results Show Good Growth From A Small Base
MAKO did well by its investors for the fourth quarter. Revenue rose 122% and slightly exceeded sell-side expectations. The company sold 18 systems in the quarter (against 33 for all of 2010), and half of them were hip-enabled, bringing the total percentage of hip-enabled RIO systems in the field to 44%.

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MAKO Surgical: Growth Investors Should Buy On Pullback

Seeking Alpha: Stryker Preparing For A Hard Slog In 2012

Diversified med-tech company Stryker (SYK) gave us all a preview of earnings two weeks ago that painted a fairly uninspiring picture in many respects. With the details of the full earnings release now in hand, it's clear that the company has some significant challenges ahead in 2012. Given today's valuation and management's history of navigating past challenges, investors would do well to consider these shares for their portfolios.

Results Broadly As Expected
Stryker reported that revenue rose 11% in the fourth quarter, or a little less than 4% on an organic basis. All of the growth came from MedSurg (up 11%) and Neuro/Spine (up over 46%), as the orthopedics business was up 1% as reported, but down 2% organically.

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Stryker Preparing For A Hard Slog In 2012

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.

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Integra Hitting That Same Ortho Wall

Investopedia: Kinetic's Roller Coaster Ride Comes To An End

Wound care specialist Kinetic Concepts (NYSE:KCI) has had a heckuva ride over the last seven years. Once a Wall Street darling with a monopoly position in a healthy market, Kinetic saw setbacks in the courtroom and setbacks in the market before fighting back with an acquisition and some savvy product line extensions. That fueled a rocky share price trajectory that saw the stock cut severely on two occasions, only to bounce back strongly. 


All's well that ends well, though, and shareholders are getting a going-away present worth more than three times the stock's low during the worst of the credit crisis and recession.

Kinetic Gets a Deal
There have been rumors off and on about Kinetic Concepts being a buyout target for years, but the speculation heated up just last week. Validating that speculation, the company announced Wednesday morning that it had accepted an all-cash buyout from a private equity group. 



To read the full piece, please follow the link below:
http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2011/Kinetics-Roller-Coaster-Ride-Comes-To-An-End-KCI-SNN-SYNO-COV-JNJ-BCR-SYK0714.aspx

Stryker Needs A Growth Resurfacing

Stryker (NYSE:SYK) used to be on the glory stocks of the medical technology sector. Every year, they churned out 20% earnings growth no matter what, and a lot of money was lost betting that the trend would end. Nowadays, though, that seems like a distant memory and the prime question about Stryker is whether they can recapture growth and leadership in their markets. 

The Quarter that Was
June was not a very encouraging quarter for Stryker fans. Revenue was up 7% overall and that was just shy of analysts' average guess. The trouble, though, was in the details. The MedSurg business showed 15.9% increase in sales as hospitals played catch up on the purchase of equipment like hospital beds; purchases that were postponed during the 2008-2009 troubles. The company's core orthopedics business, though, was only up a bit more than 1%, and hips, knees, and spinal care were all very weak. In fact, I believe this is the weakest result Stryker has produced here since they bought Howemedica from Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) in 1998.  

For the full column, please go to:
http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2010/Stryker-Needs-A-Growth-Resurfacing-SYK-PFE-ZMH-SNN-WMGI0722.aspx

Full disclosure - Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) is also a major orthopedics competitor. Per Investopedia policy, I am not allowed to mention any names I own in my own accounts. 
Full disclosure (pt 2) - I own shares of Johnson & Johnson.