What happened
Thanks to good quarterly results reported by two peers, Medtronic (MDT -1.41%) stock did very well on Tuesday. The medical-device maker's share price enjoyed a nearly 4% ride skyward, contrasting quite favorably with the essentially flat movement of the S&P 500 index on the day.
So what
Medtronic didn't have any news of its own to report but didn't need to. Both Intuitive Surgical (ISRG -0.50%), a maker of next-generation robots for surgical procedures, and Abbot Laboratories (ABT -0.03%), a traditional pharmaceutical company that has a thriving business in devices, released their latest quarterly earnings reports after market hours on Monday and on Tuesday morning, respectively.
Intuitive's results were particularly encouraging. The number of procedures performed by its da Vinci system leaped by roughly 26% on a year-over-year basis. Meanwhile, it posted double-digit growth in revenue and a notably improved bottom-line profit.
Like Intuitive, Abbott topped analyst estimates for revenue and profitability. At first glance, its 20% revenue slide was alarming. However, this was chiefly due to an entirely expected decline in the sales of COVID testing products. While the disease remains a menace, cases and fatalities continue to fall, and many experts believe it's shifting from a pandemic to an endemic stage.
Now what
Medtronic, of course, swims in the same waters as its two peers, so a good business environment for them is usually beneficial for it, too. In February, the company posted its third quarter of fiscal 2023 results, which beat analyst estimates on both the top and bottom lines. More encouragingly, management raised the bottom end of its profitability guidance for the entirety of the fiscal year.
