Shares in hospital disinfectant medical device business Nanosonics Ltd (ASX: NAN) rocketed more than 9% in afternoon trade after the group revealed record sales of $17.8 million for the first quarter of financial year 2017. The sales were up 18% over the prior quarter as the group continues to gain traction in its core U.S. market.
The company now has around 9,700 of its medical device units installed in U.S. hospitals, but believes the U.S. market size is up to 40,000 units with equivalent sized markets in Europe and the rest of the world. This means a total market size of around 120,000 units and suggests Nanosonics could be at chapter one of a long growth story.
Unfortunately, Nanosonics' potential is no secret though, as the company is currently closing in on a $1 billion valuation after posting an operating cash flow profit of just $5.7 million for the most recent quarter. Evidently a lot of continued sales and profit growth is priced into the stock, although it remains one of the most exciting small-cap growth stories on the ASX right now.
In the healthcare business if a product can get a market-leading reputation sales can really start to snowball at strong margins, as global healthcare operators have ginormous budgets to soak up the cost of new standards of care such as those offered by Nanosonics.
Other Aussie flag bearers in the global medical device space include ResMed Inc. (CHESS) (ASX: RMD), Cochlear Ltd (ASX: COH) and Somnomed Limited (ASX: SOM). All of which look to have attractive outlooks thanks to the market-leading nature of their products and the strong underlying demand. On current valuations ResMed is my preferred pick of the bunch at around $8.10 per share.
