In the medical device world, there are multibillion-dollar market opportunities that attract huge companies like Medtronic (NYSE:MDT), Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX), and Zimmer (NYSE:ZMH). And then there are market opportunities more in the range of hundreds of millions -- some of which, too, seem to attract the big fish in the med-tech pond.
All the same, Bard (NYSE:BCR) has built a nice business with a collection of products, none of which really targets an especially flashy market opportunity. As a result, Bard's historical growth rates for things like earnings, book value, and structural free cash flow aren't necessarily the highest you'll find, but they're solid and usually pretty reliable.
To wit, in this quarter, Bard saw revenue rise 9% (11% excluding currency effects), with growth in all product segments. Growth was led by oncology (up 19%). Vascular did pretty well (up 9%), too, while urology (up 5%) was more modest, and surgical (up 3%) was a little disappointing.
On the profits side of things, there's a little 'splaining to do. Stock option expense and purchased R&D write-offs made the reported numbers look a little worse than they really are. Factoring those expenses out of the picture, operating income was up 15% and net income was up 16% -- again, not a blowout result, but clearly respectable.
Looking ahead, there are some product opportunities with a little more potential sizzle than the normal Bard fare. The company is working on a radio frequency ablation product that addresses a market that could eventually be worth at least $1 billion, although companies large (such as Medtronic and St. Jude (NYSE:STJ)) and small (AtriCure (NASDAQ:ATRC)) have their own ideas about this market. Bard is also conducting studies on a carotid stent (that is, a stent for the carotid artery in the neck) -- a market where there's considerable variation in estimates of its potential size.
Should one of these new products really take off, that's clearly good news. In the meantime, investors can comfort themselves with the thought that this is a well-run company that sticks to some pretty profitable knitting.
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Fool contributor Stephen Simpson has no financial interest in any stocks mentioned (that means he's neither long nor short the shares).
