Investopedia: Hologic Holding Its Place

While a nervous stock market may be looking for safe places to wait out the economic turbulence in the world, health care does not look like that sort of safe haven these days. Hospitals are spending more than they were a year or two ago, but it is not as though purse strings are uniformly loose. Likewise, while most people still have jobs and continue to see their doctors, enough people have lost jobs or insurance coverage to make an impact on the volumes of health care companies that depend on routine visits. Hologic (Nasdaq:HOLX) is all about routine care (with a capital equipment kicker) and while this remains an attractive franchise, momentum is still soft. 

Slow Progress in the Third Quarter  
Hologic beat the top end of the analyst range for third quarter revenue, but 7% sales growth is still not likely to get investors too excited. GYN Surgery was a growth leader at nearly 11%, but Hologic's largest unit (Breast Health) was up better than 8% as well. Diagnostics and skeletal health were both up in the low single digits. 


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Investopedia: Endo Choosing The Less Traveled Path

Investors may not realize it, but there was a time when a lot of large pharmaceutical companies had device businesses as well. Most companies decided it was better to focus around their branded drugs, though, and sold or spun-off those businesses, leaving a few companies like Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) and Abbott (NYSE:ABT) as the exceptions.

Endo Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:ENDP) seems to be comfortably swimming against the tide, though. As this smaller pharmaceutical company works to diversify its model and find multiple growth opportunities ahead of generic competition for its key product Lipoderm, the company is looking to devices as part of its future.

The company announced another big move on Monday - the acquisition of urology device specialist American Medical Systems (Nasdaq:AMMD).

Terms of the Deal
Endo is paying $30 a share for American Medical, better than a 34% premium to Friday's closing price. Under the deal, Endo will be paying all cash for the device company, and assuming over $300 million in AMMD debt - bringing the total deal value to about $2.9 billion.


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Cooper: A Growing Play On Eye Care

For investors who want to play any trends in eye health, pure plays are few and far between. Most are either small divisions of huge companies (Novartis' (NYSE:NVS) Ciba Vision), private (Bausch & Lomb), very small (ISTA Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:ISTA)), or not really involved in the medical side (Luxottica (NYSE:LUX)). That makes Cooper Companies (NYSE:COO) a pretty rare company, and the fact that it grows is a cherry on top of the sundae. 

A Strong End to the Year
Cooper posted a solid finish to its 2010 fiscal year. Revenue rose 11% to $313 million, surpassing the high end of what was a surprisingly tight range of estimates. The company's vision business (which is about 85% of the total) saw revenue growth of 10%, fueled at least in part by 88% growth in silicon hydrogel lenses. Its other business, surgical tools for the ob/gyn market, saw 14% reported growth.

Cooper also did a fine job with respect to generating profits. Gross margin improved nearly four full points, while operating profits jumped 56% from the year-ago period. Profitability was definitely helped by the surgical business, where segment gross profits jumped about 12 points from the year-ago period and the operating margin was well above the corporate average (28% vs. 21.4%). 


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With Minimal Expectations, Hologic Could Still Surprise

Everyone talks about torrid earnings growth as a key ingredient in a strong stock, but that is not entirely true. Sometimes all a stock needs to do very well is for the company to surpass lackluster results, and do so in a way that inspires confidence regarding sustainability. With that in mind, Hologic (Nasdaq: HOLX) may not have the most exciting growth profile, but the stock seems to be seriously underestimating the value of this well-run business.

An Okay Quarter
Although the company did manage to beat the consensus estimate for revenue, it probably will not make a huge difference in how investors view this stock. Hologic saw revenue rise about 6%, with 13% growth in breast health (driven by strong growth in services), a 3% decline in diagnostics, an 8% increase in GYN surgery and a 4% increase in skeletal health.
 
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Three Growth Med-Techs Show Their Cards

The following went up this morning on Investopedia:
http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2010/Three-Growth-Med-Techs-Show-Their-Cards-HOLX-IRIS-VOLC-GE-CPTS-GPRO-BSX-IHI0506.aspx.

As earnings season winds down, a relatively rare trifecta occurred May 3 as three quality growth med-tech stocks reported their earnings. Hologic (Nasdaq: HOLX), IRIS International (Nasdaq: IRIS) and Volcano (Nasdaq: VOLC) all reported earnings with varying degrees of performance. 

For the full article:   http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2010/Three-Growth-Med-Techs-Show-Their-Cards-HOLX-IRIS-VOLC-GE-CPTS-GPRO-BSX-IHI0506.aspx.