Stryker reported $6.4 billion in sales and $22,595 million in operating profit for the quarter ending December 31, 2024, which was above both Wall Street’s expectations and management’s guidance.
Net sales for the full year 2024 were $22.6 billion with a reported operating margin of 16.3%.
Stryker Talks Inari Acquisition 2025 Outlook
Stryker reported a strong end to fiscal year 2024 and a record fourth quarter. The Inari acquisition, in particular, was highlighted as a notably consequential transaction.
Kevin Lobo, Stryker chair and chief executive officer, said during the fourth quarter earnings report, “Against double-digit comparatives from a year ago, organic sales growth exceeded 10% for both Q4 and the full year. Globally, for the full year, our instruments, endoscopy, medical, neuro cranial and trauma and extremities businesses all delivered double-digit organic sales growth. Full year U.S. organic sales growth was an impressive 10.6% and international organic sales growth was 8.8%.”
Overall, the earnings per share saw 16% growth for Q4 and 15% growth compared to the full year of 2023. Stryker is projecting an organic sales growth of 8% to 9% in its full year 2025 guidance. When combined with the continuing operating margin expansion, the adjusted EPS is $13.45, $13.70 per share.
These numbers don’t consider the impact of Inari Medical, Lobo emphasized though. Stryker is also selling its Spinal Implants business which has been underperforming.
Lobo, however, stressed, “We continue to be excited about Interventional Spine, which is one of our fastest-growing businesses and was bolstered by the recent acquisition of Vertos Medical. Additionally, we remain committed to enabling technologies for the spine market, including our Q Guidance System, Copilot and Mako Spine. These portfolio decisions reflect a continuation of our strategy to drive category leadership in attractive, high-growth end markets.”
Andy Pierce, group president, MedSurg on Neurotechnology, elaborated on what the purchase of Inari will mean.
He said, “With the acquisition of Inari, Stryker will be a leading player in the fast-growing area of [mechanical] thrombectomy treatment for venous thromboembolism or VTE. Mechanical thrombectomy represents a $15 billion addressable opportunity with the U.S. comprising the $6 billion of that opportunity. Today, less than 1/5 of treatments for VTE are with mechanical thrombectomy. And we, therefore, believe this opportunity will expand over time as hospitals and clinicians look to elevate the standard of care for VTE.”
He added, “In addition to its treatment for VTE, Inari has invested in 4 exciting therapies to address unmet needs in other patient populations. These emerging therapies include chronic venous disease, dialysis access management, acute limb ischemia and chronic limb-threatening ischemia. Together, they represent over $5 billion of incremental market segment opportunity globally.”
Jason Beach, vice president of finance and investor relations, also updated analysts on Mako which had another record quarter both in the U.S. and globally. In the U.S., 2.3 of knees and 1.3 of hips were performed using Mako in 2024. Globally, just over 455 of knees and approximately 20% of hips were operated on using Mako.
He added, “Mako Spine completed its first cases in October, and we received excellent surgeons’ feedback. We will continue to progress through our limited market release and remain on track for full U.S. commercial launch in the second half of the year. Next, we received approval from the FDA for our Mako shoulder application, and were able to perform our first cases in December.”
Wall Street Analysts Raise Questions About Potential Health Policy Changes
Michael Matson Needham & Company, Inc., asked for an update on the potential impact of the tariffs President Trump wants to place on Mexico and Canada.
Glenn Boehnlein said, “I think, first of all, just you got to keep in mind the scale here. We have roughly 40 manufacturing plants around the world, and we have 1 in Mexico. It does assembly of some of our products.”
“So right now, we are looking at this closely. We’re following the discussions. It’s a little early to really evaluate what the possibility of that might be and the impact to us or even maybe the potential follow-on impact to customers.”
“So right now, I would say we’re like most companies, especially medical companies that may be excluded at some level from a certain level of tariffs, we’re watching and sort of seeing which way this develops. But keep in mind, it’s 1 plant out of 40.”
Richard Newitter with Truist Securities was also interested in potential health policy changes and the impact of Stryker’s customers.
Beach said he wouldn’t speculate on any new policies that could be coming in the future, but he would say that the capital environment has been good for them and they don’t have any reason for that to change throughout the year.
During the call, David Roman with Goldman Sachs also asked for more clarification on the dynamics in the shoulder market and the Mako Shoulder’s place in it.
Lobo said, “Listen, I’m extremely excited about Mako Shoulder. It’s a very difficult procedure to do. And the harder the procedure is, the more the robot brings value. And in our case, we’re doing bone preparation with haptics with our robot in a tight space. So the surgeon feedback—early feedback is extremely exciting, at least as exciting in knees, if not more.”
“Now it does require a lot of change management, and we learned that through the new launch that sometimes you have to go a little slower at the beginning, so they can go faster later on. And so this year is going to be really getting the training protocols well-defined and established, and we’ll really start to see more acceleration in 2026 and beyond.”
