Share prices for makers of insulin management devices got a bump today after Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) reported today that supply problems pushed sales down -1% for its diabetes division.
The Fridley, Minn.-based company, which released its fiscal 2018 first-quarter results this morning, posted diabetes revenues of $449 million for the three months ended July 28. The decline was driven by strong demand for Medtronic’s CGM-enabled insulin pumps, especially the MiniMed 670G hybrid closed-loop device.
“The additional demand has resulted in fulfillment prioritization to the existing installed based, including MiniMed 670G priority access program customers, affecting sales of sensor-augmented pumps to new customers in the near-term. In addition, strong customer enrollment in its priority access program is also temporarily affecting revenue growth,” Medtronic said.
“The strength of our diversification and solid underlying performance of our businesses, combined with the stable growth of our end markets, enabled us to manage the impact of a global IT system disruption and temporary diabetes sensor supply constraint,” added chairman & CEO Omar Ishrak. “While these temporary issues had affected first-quarter revenue growth, we continued to drive operating margin expansion.
That news, and lower-than-expected sales for the entire company, pushed MDT shares down -2.2% to $81.71 apiece today, but buoyed shares of rival diabetes management companies including Dexcom (NSDQ:DXCM), Tandem Diabetes Care (NSDQ:TNDM) and Insulet (NSDQ:PODD).
DXCM shares were up 4.1% to $76.03 each, TNDM’s stock rose 8.3% to $70.1¢ per share and PODD hit $57.44 for a 3.0% gain in late-morning activity.
