{IMAGERIGHT:http://www.massdevice.com/sites/default/wp-content/uploads/checkup/090609_index.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 June 5 closed with a reading of 5.43, up nearly 7.3 percent compared with the prior week. It’s the third consecutive week of increases; since we began tracking these companies in late March, the index has risen 11.7 percent.
{IMAGELEFT:http://www.massdevice.com/sites/default/wp-content/uploads/checkup/090609_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 June 5:
The five biggest gainers:
- Palomar Medical Technologies Inc. +62.0% (open $10.33; close $16.73)
- Optos Inc. +32.2% (open $57.50; close $76.00)
- Quick-Med Technologies Inc.% +31.9% (open $0.47; close $0.62)
- NxStage Medical Inc. +28.6% (open $3.50; close $4.50)
- Parexel International Corp. +22.9% (open $10.50; close $12.90)
And the five biggest losers:
- Cambridge Heart Inc. -16.7% (open $0.12; close $0.10)
- NMT Medical Inc. -10.0% (open $1.80; close $1.62)
- Haemonetics Corp. -10.0% (open $58.83; close $52.96)
- BioSphere Medical Inc. -8.1% (open $1.85; close $1.70)
- Exact Sciences Corp. -7.5% (open $2.00; close $1.85)
The checkup also takes a look at a different financial metric each week, ranking local players based their performance in that category.
Last week, we examined which companies generated the highest net profit margins. This week we’re looking at return on assets, a measure of profitability relative to its total assets. ROA indicates how efficient a company’s management team is at using assets to generate earnings. It’s calculated by dividing annual earnings by its total assets.
Here are the bottom 20 public medical device companies in Massachusetts, ranked in descending order according to lowest ROA:
- Hepalife Technologies Inc. -182%
- Biopure Corp. -167%
- Viking Medical Systems Inc. -137%
- Pressure BioSciences Inc. -97%
- Exact Sciences Corp. -95%
- Insulet Corp. -77%
- Heartware International Inc. -76%
- Cambridge Heart Inc. -75%
- Acusphere Inc. -73%
- Implant Sciences Corp. -68%
- NeuroMetrix Inc. -63%
- NMT Medical Inc. -56%
- Interleukin Genetics Inc. -47%
- AdvanSource Biomaterials Corp. -41%
- Caliper Life Sciences Inc. -39%
- Clinical Data Inc. -33%
- Abiomed Inc. -32%
- Orthofix International N.V. -32%
- Vision-Sciences Inc. -31%
- Amicas Inc. -29%
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.