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CryoLife Hits a 52-Week High on Strong Growth Prospects

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Share price of CryloLife, Inc. , a leading medical device and tissue processing company, scaled a new 52-week high of $18.64 on Sep 22, eventually closing a bit lower at $18.56.

A glimpse at the company’s share price movement reveals a stupendous one-year return of approximately 89.7%, way better than the S&P 500’s 12.6% over the same time frame. Notably, the company has witnessed an impressive 54.4% increase in share price since the release of a promising second-quarter fiscal 2016 results in July.

While the company’s current earnings yield is 1.9%, far better than the industry average of -5.8%; its projected sales growth for the current year is 24.8% compared to the industry average of 10.6%.

Meanwhile, CryoLife sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and has a market cap of $623.53 million.

CRYOLIFE INC Price and Consensus

 

CRYOLIFE INC Price and Consensus | CRYOLIFE INC Quote

Growth Catalysts

CryoLife has shown growing prominence in the medical-instruments industry, primarily driven by favorable regulatory actions and the On-X acquisition.

Cryolife has gained approval from the U.S. FDA for the ‘revised study protocol’ of PerClot trial platform, which will enroll patients for trial studies later this year. In fact, it is a big boost for growth investors holding shares of CryoLife as the company expects the platform to gain the final FDA nod in the first half of 2019. Meanwhile, the BioGlue platform has received approval from the Chinese FDA for trial studies and the company expects the final go-ahead for BioGlue in 2019.

Coming to other noteworthy developments, the acquisition of On-X Life Technologies Holdings, a TX-based mechanical heart valve company, has been a key catalyst. The acquisition marked Cryolife’s entry into the Mechanical Heart Valve market, which is forecasted to reach a worth of $4.80 billion by 2020, growing at a CAGR of 9.1% globally.

The takeover of PhotoFix is also a major positive in our view. Meanwhile, we note that after a posting an impressive second quarter of 2016, CryoLife raised its full-year 2016 guidance. Total revenues are now estimated to grow in the mid to upper single digit percentage range to around $180–$182 million. Adjusted earnings are projected in the band of 32–34 cents, up from the previous guidance of 29–32 cents.

Estimate Revisions

The company’s estimate revision trend for the current year is quite impressive with all the three estimates moving higher over the past two months. The Zacks Consensus Estimate has also been raised by a notable 13 cents to 34 cents per share. Over the same time frame, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for full-year 2017 moved up by 7 cents to 38 cents per share.

Other Key Picks

Other well-ranked stocks in the broader medical sector include IDEXX Laboratories Inc. (IDXX - Free Report) , Masimo Corporation (MASI - Free Report) and ABIOMED Inc. .

IDEXX currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. We note that the company posted a positive earnings surprise in the last four quarters, with an average of 12.6%. Meanwhile, a glimpse at the share price reveals a stellar one-year return of 48.6%, better than the S&P 500’s 12.6% over the same time frame.

Masimo, a leading developer of healthcare monitoring technologies, also carries a Zacks Rank #1. This stock has an impressive long-term expected earnings growth rate of 15%. Coming to share price movement, Masimo represents a solid one-year return of 41.8%.

ABIOMED carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Notably, ABIOMED has a positive earnings surprise for the last four quarters of 34.9%. This stock has an impressive long-term expected earnings growth rate of 26.6%.

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