Obesity and Diabetes Drive Medical Technology Innovation and Profits: Equity Investors Take Notice

July 22, 2019

Vijay Kumar is Managing Director, Healthcare Services & Technology Research Team at Evercore ISI. Vijay Kumar is an analyst at Evercore ISI who is primarily focused on the medical supplies and devices and diagnostics subsector.

Dr. Kumar’s research expertise spans the diagnostic, medical equipment and medical supplies subgroups. Prior to joining Evercore ISI in 2012, Dr. Kumar spent three years at Deutsche Bank Securities as a research analyst on the health care services and technology research team.

Dr. Kumar began his career at Irevna Research Ltd. Dr. Kumar graduated from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, and is also a Doctor of Medicine.

In this exclusive 3,172 word interview in the Wall Street Transcript, Dr. Kumar develops his thesis for some investment opportunities in the medical technology sector.

“Medtronic is probably the poster child of being undervalued right now. It has had some issues from a product-cycle perspective.

From a longer-time-horizon perspective, these are temporary hiccups. It has massive product cycles upcoming. An organic inflection for them is in about six to 12 months, so the stock is massively discounted.

Investors or the Street seems to not be giving them any credit for that inflection in top line. It is the poster child for a company that is on the cusp of an inflecting top line that has been driven mainly by innovation but which is not being priced into the stock right now.”

The diabetic and obese condition of many people are driving medical technology innovation for select companies:

“They have a flexible endoluminal system. You can insert the flexible robotic arm through the mouth. The hope is that maybe the arm is long enough so you can reach all the way to the stomach and conduct bariatric surgeries.

That eliminates the need for any sort of incisions on the abdomen. Those are companies that participate in the obesity market.”

Get the complete picture on this and many other top picks from Dr. Kumar by reading the complete 3,172 word interview, exclusively in the Wall Street Transcript.