Masimo (NSDQ:MASI) CEO Joe Kiani told investors today that the medical device company isn’t weighing any more big moves on the mergers & acquisitions front, a pivot from comments he made earlier this year.
Kiani, speaking at Irvine, Calif.-based Masimo’s investor day in New York City, said that although he was "bullish" earlier in the year that the company would make some moves on the acquisition front, he has since pulled back from that position.
"Nothing is in the pipeline of any magnitude," Kiani said.
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Masimo will instead look to either increase dividend payments to shareholders or execute a share buyback, he said. Although he didn’t specify any plans for cash on hand of about $122 million as of the end of the 1st quarter, Kiani said Masimo’s next move could be tied to whether or not President Barack Obama is re-elected in November, which could signal an increase in the capital gains tax.
Kiani recently told MassDevice.com that he often has to balance the needs of investors with the long-term growth of the company.
"I think the investors typically have 1 measurement, and that is the stock price. Although as a native shareholder, the stock price is important to me, I don’t look at it daily or monthly. I look at it as, ‘What can our management team do so that I can assure a solid stock price whenever it is – 5 years from now?’" he told us.
"I’m trying to do what we can do to make Masimo fundamentally strong – make products that improve patient care, because that will be valuable and we’ll be rewarded for it. The investors have a shorter outlook, unfortunately. And I think that’s one of the big problems of public companies starting to look quarterly instead of what they can really control long-term. So we feel pressure and we’re sensitive to it, but I still can’t run the company based on that. I’ve got to run the company based on what we think is right to do."
Masimo hasn’t been silent on the market though. The company made a $30 million acquistion of capnometery solutions developer Phasein in August.
