Six Medical Devices, One Sunday Morning: The Post-Chicago Industry Study

Sunday morning, after our Saturday convention duties wrapped, six fresh stock threads went up before the coffee pot was empty. Five of them sat in medical devices.

Boston Scientific had carried the medtech banner onto the BetterInvesting Round Table floor in Chicago. Ken Kavula did the presentation, walking the room through the BSX thesis. The stock won its way onto the convention ballot on the strength of his case and the Round Table’s deliberation.

Coming back home, the natural next question. What does the rest of medical devices look like sitting next to it?

The Six Names

One industry, six names side by side.

Three different bodies of work. One industry frame.

The Data

Here is what Manifest sees as of May 4th, 2026.

https://manifestinvesting.com/view/the-post-chicago-industry-study?ref=W1WBBLXF

The current Sweet Spot for the broader market is 13.4 to 18.4 percent.

Both Sides of the Sweet Spot

Boston Scientific is a standout. Quality of 98.5, a core score of 285 (the highest in the group), and a PAR of 19.2 percent that lands above the Sweet Spot rather than inside it. Net margin near 26 percent. A growth forecast in the low double digits. That profile is most of the reason the Round Table came around to it.

We can’t help but notice that out of six premium-quality medtech names, only one is pricing in returns above the Sweet Spot, and one more is knocking on the door. The rest are telling a different story.

Great Company, Rarely Cheap

Intuitive Surgical and Edwards Lifesciences are the textbook version of a problem we keep running into.

This is the same conversation that surfaced on the April 21 Bull Sessions when we walked through Costco and Johnson and Johnson. Premium businesses rarely look cheap. They keep working anyway. The patient capital question is whether you wait for a Sweet Spot reading that may never arrive, or you accept that the price of owning the best is settling for a return below the median.

Where We Might Start

The windshield is wider than the rear view mirror in medtech right now. The rear view mirror tells us these companies have already compounded. The windshield asks which of them get to compound through the next decade of demographics, home health, and surgical robotics. The data does not pick the answer. It narrows the work.

Industries that improve longevity tend to improve our patience along the way. Six companies. One Sunday morning. One post-Chicago read on medtech through Manifest’s lens.

We will keep watching. The Round Table will revisit. The data will move. The community will work through it.