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Teleflex (TFX) Rides on UroLift Growth, Hurt by Pandemic Woes

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Teleflex Incorporated (TFX - Free Report) has been witnessing gradual rebound in revenues, driven by stable performance across its operating segments and geographies. The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Teleflex exited the second quarter of 2021 with better-than-expected results. The year-over-year growth in earnings and revenues looks impressive as well. Geographically, the company’s performance was strong in the Americas, EMEA, and Asia (driven by double-digit growth in China and high single-digit growth in Japan).

Strong performance in the Vascular Access, Interventional, Anesthesia, Surgical, Interventional Urology and OEM segments also contributed to top-line growth. Expansion of both margins is another upside. The raised EPS guidance for 2021 is indicative that this bullish trend will continue through the rest of 2021.

In the second quarter, the company witnessed continued growth momentum in UroLift as revenues rose 26% at CER sequentially. The company is encouraged by the strong business trends for UroLift with continued engagement from physicians in all care settings and patients increasingly seeking treatment with UroLift for symptoms of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH). The company trained 118 urologists in the second quarter and is well on track to achieve its annual target of training 450 to 500 urologists in 2021.

Meanwhile, on the strength of a successful 2020 campaign, Teleflex doubled the awareness for UroLift in the targeted population of men with BPH and has also decided to increase its investment in 2021 and run a national campaign for the full year.

On its second-quarter earnings call, the company also announced that the full rollout of UroLift 2 in the United States is consistent with its timing expectations. The company expects the vast majority of physician customers to be converted to UroLift 2 by the end of 2022.

On the flip side, a year-over-year decline in the company’s ‘Other’ product segment (consisting of respiratory and urology care products) in the second quarter of 2021 is concerning. The escalating operating expenses are building pressure on the bottom line. Lingering impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, stiff competition and foreign exchange woes persist.

Further, Vascular Access’s second-quarter revenues declined 2.1% at CER due to higher demand in the year-ago quarter associated with COVID-19. Within the 'Other' category, revenues declined 4.9% year over year and 9.9% at CER, given COVID-19 associated respiratory product demand in the Americas and EMEA in the prior year.

Over the past year, Teleflex’s stock has underperformed its industry. The stock has declined 2.3% against the industry's 11.5% growth.

Key Picks

A few better-ranked stocks from the Medical-Instruments industry include IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (IDXX - Free Report) , Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (ISRG - Free Report) and Semler Scientific Inc. , each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 (Strong Buy) Rank stocks here.

IDEXX has a long-term earnings growth rate of 19.9%.

Intuitive Surgical has a long-term earnings growth rate of 9.7%.

Semler Scientific has a long-term earnings growth rate of 25%.

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