{IMAGERIGHT:http://www.massdevice.com/sites/default/wp-content/uploads/checkup/090602_index1.jpg}Our Weekly Checkup takes the temperature of the 63 public medical device companies in the MassDevice Index. The index is weighted according to market capitalization, based on the number of shares outstanding for each company from its most recent quarterly report and each Friday’s closing share price.
The index for the week ended May 29 closed with a reading of 5.06, up more than 4.4 percent compared with the prior week. It’s the second week of growth for the index; since we began tracking these companies in late March, the index has risen 4.1 percent.
{IMAGELEFT:http://www.massdevice.com/sites/default/wp-content/uploads/checkup/090602_index2.jpg}Generally speaking, the MassDevice index seems to track four other indices (the S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the Dow’s IHI medical devices index and the NASDAQ exchange). Plotted against those four, our index seems to enjoy higher highs, but suffers from lower lows — especially as evidenced during the week ended May 15, when our index plunged more than 18 percent. The next-largest decline, by the S&P 500, was a mere 5.5 percent.
The Weekly Checkup also compares Monday morning’s opening share prices with their value when the markets close Friday afternoon to calculate the biggest gainers and losers.
Here are the ten firms that posted the biggest share price gains and losses during the week ended May 29:
The five biggest gainers:
- Exact Sciences Corp. +31.6% (open $1.52; close $2.00)
- Caliper Life Sciences +15.5% (open $1.29; close $1.49)
- Quick-Med Technologies Inc. +14.6% (open $0.41; close $0.47)
- Pressure BioSciences Inc. +14.1% (open $1.49; close $1.70)
- NxStage Medical Inc. +12.7% (open $3.08; close $3.47)
And the five biggest losers:
- Interleukin Genetics Inc. -19.1% (open $0.68; close $0.55)
- Acusphere Inc. -14.3% (open $0.28; close $0.24)
- HepaLife Technologies -10.0% (open $0.20; close $0.18)
- SeraCare Life Sciences -9.1% (open $1.10; close $1.00)
- Osmetech -8.4% (open $2.85; close $2.61)
The checkup also takes a look at a different financial metric each week, ranking local players based their performance in that category.
This week we’re looking at net profit margin, a calculation of net profit as a percentage of sales. It’s a good measure of operating efficiency, computed using net profit before extraordinary items and taxes (that is, net sales less the cost of goods sold and selling, general and administrative expenses).
Here are the top 20 public medical device companies in Massachusetts, ranked in descending order according to net profit margin:
- Athenahealth Inc. 20.69
- Waters Corp. 20.47
- Covidien Ltd. 13.73
- Psychemedics Corp. 12.94
- Icad Inc. 11.62
- Aspect Medical Systems Inc. 11.18
- Haemonetics Corp. 10.07
- Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. 9.47
- Millipore Corp. 9.1
- Cynosure Inc. 7.3
- PerkinElmer Inc. 6.52
- Zoll Medical Corp. 5.89
- Bruker Corp. 5.86
- Parexel International Corp. 5.56
- MKS Instruments Inc. 4.65
- UFP Technologies Inc. 4.65
- Plexus Corp. 4.57
- Harvard Bioscience Inc. 1.9
- Palomar Medical Technologies Inc. -0.08
- Dynamics Research Co. -0.52
Source: Mergent Inc.
Disclaimer: MassDevice.com’s rankings do not reflect an opinion of companies’ health, prospects or viability. They are intended to provide a snapshot of publicly traded medical device companies and in no way constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any particular security, portfolio of securities, transaction or investment strategy.