Has Medtronic Stock Become A Different Bet? Trefis Team Mon, October 12, 2026 at 1:16 PM EDT 3 min read MDT ^GSPC BSX ABT SYK Explore stocks on Coinbase Trading disclosure Trading disclosure The above button links to Coinbase. Yahoo Finance is not a broker-dealer or investment adviser and does not offer securities or cryptocurrencies for sale or facilitate trading. Coinbase pays us for certain activity generated through this link. Prices displayed are informational.
Medtronic (MDT) stock trades at 21.6 times earnings, sitting about level with the S&P 500 at 21.9. Shareholders paying that market price need to know what they are buying, particularly as corporate priorities shift. During its fiscal Q2 2025 call in November 2024, management first reviewed its fastest-growing businesses, including cardiac ablation, before turning to its established market leaders. Now, the company leads with something newer. So what is Medtronic putting first today?
Medtronic Now Leads With Robots And Cardiac Ablation
Surgical robots and cardiac ablation represent newer product lines for Medtronic, yet management placed both front and center during its fiscal Q1 2027 call on September 1, 2026. Executives detailed an expansion of the surgical robotics line built around the Hugo system. They also highlighted another strong quarter for the cardiac ablation business, which sells the Affera system and the Sphere-9 catheter.
The tone was noticeably different during the fiscal Q2 2025 call. At that time, management focused heavily on businesses it called its established market leaders. Together, those units accounted for nearly half of revenue. A group that large sets the pace for the entire company.
How Big Is Cardiac Ablation At Medtronic?
Despite this new emphasis, cardiac ablation is about 5% of the company. The segment passed $2 billion in sales over the past twelve months, management noted on the fiscal Q1 2027 call. For scale, Medtronic as a whole took in $37.5 billion over twelve months. The established market leaders were nearly half of revenue when management described them on the fiscal Q2 2025 call.
Cardiac ablation is growing at a much faster rate, however. Its sales climbed 88% in fiscal Q1 2027, compared to a 13.7% increase for Medtronic overall. Meanwhile, management reported that procedures utilizing the Hugo system are growing at more than twice the market rate.
The company is also spending to build out its robot business. Medtronic invested $700 million in Cornerstone, and it will distribute Cornerstone's Sentire Surgical System. To put that investment in perspective, the sum equals about a tenth of the $7.1 billion in operating income Medtronic earned over the past twelve months.
Is Medtronic Growing Faster Than Before?
Based on reported figures, the answer is yes. Revenue over the past twelve months was up 9.8% from a year earlier, helped by an extra selling week in the latest quarter. That same measure stood at 5.0% a year ago and 3.2% two years ago, meaning Medtronic has grown faster as its emphasis moved. That trajectory is reassuring for anyone who owns the stock.
The push into cardiac ablation does cost Medtronic some margin for now. Adjusted gross margin reached 65.2% in fiscal Q1 2027, up 10 basis points from a year earlier. Even with that slight gain, management noted that the mix of sales cost the company 50 basis points. Executives traced that mix effect largely to diabetes and cardiac ablation. Within the ablation segment, Medtronic is currently placing systems and expects higher-margin catheter sales later.
The latest quarter also benefited from the calendar. An extra selling week added about 6.7 percentage points to that quarter's growth, management said. Fiscal Q2 2027 contains no extra week, and management has guided to organic growth of roughly 6%. When Medtronic ultimately reports that quarter's result, the market will see how fast the company is growing without help from the calendar.
Now you know MDT better. And that's our purpose: to make you informed before you invest your money. However, making a bet on a single stock carries its own risks.
There is a smarter choice. Since its inception, the Trefis High Quality (HQ) Portfolio has beaten the benchmark that combines the three major indices - the S&P 500, S&P Mid-cap, and Russell 2000. And it did so without taking the concentrated risk that comes with do-it-yourself stock picking.
