Stryker cut its growth forecast as orthopaedic sales slowed, and the shares fell 6.38%

Stryker

Stryker shares fell 6.38% to US$291.86 on Friday, the day after its September-quarter results. They lost 4.98% over the week.

The slowdown is in hips and knees. Orthopaedics, the division that sells joint implants, grew 5.9% on an organic basis, which leaves out currency moves and acquisitions. It grew 8.6% in the June quarter. The rest of the company grew 9.1%.

Overall sales rose 7.7% to US$6.5 billion, short of the roughly US$6.6 billion analysts expected. Chief executive Kevin Lobo said the quarter "did fall short of our expectations".

Chart: Stryker's sales rose. Its market value fell back. Two scales, both from zero, in US$bn: revenue by year on the left; market value at each year end and on 30 October on the right. The value was 137.3 at the end of 2024. — This story’s chart of the day: the numbers, the dark version and the animated version are on its own page. The chart’s page →

The forecast took the bigger hit. Stryker now expects organic growth of between 6.5% and 7.0% this year. In July it was aiming for 8.3% to 9.3%.

What to watch

Stryker's organic growth was 9.0% in the June quarter, even as it recovered from a cyberattack in March. I'd want to see whether hip and knee volumes pick up again before reading this as more than one soft quarter.

This story ran in Third Time Unlucky Monday 2 November’s edition, with the market snapshot, the other two stories, the numbers and the week ahead. Read the whole edition →

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