Medtronic Adjusts Long-Term Goals (MDT)
Medical devices was supposed to be recession-proof, or at least was supposed to be recession-resistant. But we have seen over and over how this notion has not been the case. Medtronic Inc. (NYSE: MDT) today highlighted further evidence that medical…
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.
Medical devices was supposed to be recession-proof, or at least was supposed to be recession-resistant. But we have seen over and over how this notion has not been the case. Medtronic Inc. (NYSE: MDT) today highlighted further evidence that medical technology has to adjust to a new, harsher environment.
The company was presenting data at the J.P. Morgan health careconference and it brought down some of its longer-term forecasts. Itblamed a sluggish market for new implantable defibrillators, but theeconomy is the likely culprit here.
The company still expects earnings growth in the double-digits andit reaffirmed earnings targets for the fiscal April-2009 period.
Medtronic’s prior long-term sales growth over the next five years was 9% to 11%. The company now sees sales growing 5% to 8% for near-term, but put its long-term earningsgrowth target at 10% or more. Its prior growth target was roughly 11%to 14%.
This comes on the heels of its announcement that it plans to purchaseAblation Frontiers for an initial payment of $225 million pluspotential initial payments. With a $36 billion market cap, thatacquisition will hardly be noticed any time soon.
Jon C. Ogg
January 12, 2009
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.
McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.
His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.
A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.
TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.
McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.
