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Zacks Industry Outlook Highlights: Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, Covidien and Smith & Nephew, Abbott Labs and Boston Scientific
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For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – Feb 28, 2018 – Today, Zacks Equity Research discusses the Industry: Medical Devices, Part 1, including Johnson & Johnson (JNJ - Free Report) , Medtronic (MDT - Free Report) , Covidien and Smith & Nephew (SNN - Free Report) , Abbott Labs (ABT - Free Report) and Boston Scientific (BSX - Free Report) .
The Q4 earnings season is approaching its end with more than 80% of the S&P 500 companies having released their quarterly earnings. Most of the companies have incurred big one-time charges related to the change in tax law this time around. The gap between adjusted operating earnings and reported earnings is in fact the widest in recent years. The MedTech space is also not immune to the trend.
Last year, the MedTech space witnessed a good deal of uncertainty on account of a series of political events. While the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or Obamacare was not rolled back as was originally expected, the year ended with the tax overhaul. As part of the latest tax reform, corporate tax rates have been slashed to 21% from 35% earlier.
Industry Appears Vulnerable to Change
Many of the economists expect the new tax law to have a negative impact on the industry due to a possible cut in overall Medicare spending if certain criteria are not met by a specific date.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) apprehends that if it doesn’t find any alternative to meet the fiscal deficit from the huge tax cut, automatic cuts worth $136 billion, including $25 billion in Medicare cuts, from mandatory spending in 2018 could be triggered.
Delayed Medical Device Tax: Boon to the Industry
Amid the concerns related to the tax reform, Congress’ postponement of the medical device tax for another two years came as a huge relief to industry participants and investors. The original 2018 tax reform bill did not include any mention of this temporary repeal and investors were apprehensive that medical device tax will be reinforced in 2018.
This 2.3% tax took a toll on the entire medical device industry since its enactment in 2013. Per the Advanced Medical Technology Association lobbying group, this tax had a significant negative impact on medical innovation resulting in loss or deferred creation of jobs.
Johnson & Johnson made a payment of $180 million as medical device sales tax in 2014. Medtronic, the legacy Covidien and Smith & Nephew paid $112 million, $60 million and $25 million, respectively in 2014.
Medical device giant Stryker Corporation reported net earnings of $1.14 billion and paid approximately $229 million as medical device excise tax in 2015 -- nearly 16% of Stryker’s bottom line income (data from a Med Device Online report). No wonder, this dreadful tax drew severe criticism from both Democrats and Republicans and was delayed by Congress in 2015 for two years.
Regarding the latest two-year suspension of the tax, Mark Leahey, President and CEO of the Medical Device Manufacturers Association (MDMA) has stated that, “Congress must permanently repeal this disastrous policy in order to fully realize the long-term investments in patient care and job creation that are critical to growth.” It remains to be seen whether the tax is fully eliminated or resumed after the two-year period. For now, the deferral will encourage R&D activities in this space.
Zacks Industry Rank
Within the Zacks Industry classification, Medical Device is broadly grouped into the Medical sector (one of the 16 Zacks sectors) and further sub-divided into four industries at the expanded level: Medical - Instruments, Medical - Products, Medical - Dental Supplies and Medical Info Systems.
We rank all 250-plus industries in the 16 Zacks sectors based on the earnings outlook and fundamental strength of the constituent companies in each.
The Zacks Industry Rank is #168 (bottom 34% of the 250 plus Zacks classified industries) for Medical - Instruments, #179 (bottom 30%) for Medical - Products, #135 (bottom 47%) for Medical - Dental Supplies, #132 (bottom 48%) for Medical Info Systems. Our backtesting shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1.
Upon analyzing the Zacks Industry Rank for different Medical Device segments, it can be said that the near-term outlook for these aforementioned MedTech subsectors is bearish.
Price Performance
The price performance of two major Zacks categorized subindustries, Medical Product and Medical Instruments, however, indicate a bullish market sentiment. Medical Product stocks have increased 2.1% in this period. Some players from this space are Abbott Labs and Boston Scientific.
Year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 1.6%, the med instruments space has risen 7.5%.
Strong Stocks that Should Be in the News
Many are little publicized and fly under the Wall Street radar. They're virtually unknown to the general public. Yet today's 220 Zacks Rank #1 "Strong Buys" were generated by the stock-picking system that has nearly tripled the market from 1988 through 2015. Its average gain has been a stellar +26% per year.See these high-potential stocks free >>.
Zacks Investment Research is under common control with affiliated entities (including a broker-dealer and an investment adviser), which may engage in transactions involving the foregoing securities for the clients of such affiliates.
Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.
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Zacks Industry Outlook Highlights: Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, Covidien and Smith & Nephew, Abbott Labs and Boston Scientific
For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – Feb 28, 2018 – Today, Zacks Equity Research discusses the Industry: Medical Devices, Part 1, including Johnson & Johnson (JNJ - Free Report) , Medtronic (MDT - Free Report) , Covidien and Smith & Nephew (SNN - Free Report) , Abbott Labs (ABT - Free Report) and Boston Scientific (BSX - Free Report) .
Industry: Medical Devices, Part 1
Link: https://www.zacks.com/commentary/150968/medical-device-industry-outlook---february-2018
The Q4 earnings season is approaching its end with more than 80% of the S&P 500 companies having released their quarterly earnings. Most of the companies have incurred big one-time charges related to the change in tax law this time around. The gap between adjusted operating earnings and reported earnings is in fact the widest in recent years. The MedTech space is also not immune to the trend.
Last year, the MedTech space witnessed a good deal of uncertainty on account of a series of political events. While the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or Obamacare was not rolled back as was originally expected, the year ended with the tax overhaul. As part of the latest tax reform, corporate tax rates have been slashed to 21% from 35% earlier.
Industry Appears Vulnerable to Change
Many of the economists expect the new tax law to have a negative impact on the industry due to a possible cut in overall Medicare spending if certain criteria are not met by a specific date.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) apprehends that if it doesn’t find any alternative to meet the fiscal deficit from the huge tax cut, automatic cuts worth $136 billion, including $25 billion in Medicare cuts, from mandatory spending in 2018 could be triggered.
Delayed Medical Device Tax: Boon to the Industry
Amid the concerns related to the tax reform, Congress’ postponement of the medical device tax for another two years came as a huge relief to industry participants and investors. The original 2018 tax reform bill did not include any mention of this temporary repeal and investors were apprehensive that medical device tax will be reinforced in 2018.
This 2.3% tax took a toll on the entire medical device industry since its enactment in 2013. Per the Advanced Medical Technology Association lobbying group, this tax had a significant negative impact on medical innovation resulting in loss or deferred creation of jobs.
Johnson & Johnson made a payment of $180 million as medical device sales tax in 2014. Medtronic, the legacy Covidien and Smith & Nephew paid $112 million, $60 million and $25 million, respectively in 2014.
Medical device giant Stryker Corporation reported net earnings of $1.14 billion and paid approximately $229 million as medical device excise tax in 2015 -- nearly 16% of Stryker’s bottom line income (data from a Med Device Online report). No wonder, this dreadful tax drew severe criticism from both Democrats and Republicans and was delayed by Congress in 2015 for two years.
Regarding the latest two-year suspension of the tax, Mark Leahey, President and CEO of the Medical Device Manufacturers Association (MDMA) has stated that, “Congress must permanently repeal this disastrous policy in order to fully realize the long-term investments in patient care and job creation that are critical to growth.” It remains to be seen whether the tax is fully eliminated or resumed after the two-year period. For now, the deferral will encourage R&D activities in this space.
Zacks Industry Rank
Within the Zacks Industry classification, Medical Device is broadly grouped into the Medical sector (one of the 16 Zacks sectors) and further sub-divided into four industries at the expanded level: Medical - Instruments, Medical - Products, Medical - Dental Supplies and Medical Info Systems.
We rank all 250-plus industries in the 16 Zacks sectors based on the earnings outlook and fundamental strength of the constituent companies in each.
The Zacks Industry Rank is #168 (bottom 34% of the 250 plus Zacks classified industries) for Medical - Instruments, #179 (bottom 30%) for Medical - Products, #135 (bottom 47%) for Medical - Dental Supplies, #132 (bottom 48%) for Medical Info Systems. Our backtesting shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1.
Upon analyzing the Zacks Industry Rank for different Medical Device segments, it can be said that the near-term outlook for these aforementioned MedTech subsectors is bearish.
Price Performance
The price performance of two major Zacks categorized subindustries, Medical Product and Medical Instruments, however, indicate a bullish market sentiment.
Medical Product stocks have increased 2.1% in this period. Some players from this space are Abbott Labs and Boston Scientific.
Year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 1.6%, the med instruments space has risen 7.5%.
Strong Stocks that Should Be in the News
Many are little publicized and fly under the Wall Street radar. They're virtually unknown to the general public. Yet today's 220 Zacks Rank #1 "Strong Buys" were generated by the stock-picking system that has nearly tripled the market from 1988 through 2015. Its average gain has been a stellar +26% per year.See these high-potential stocks free >>.
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Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.