The Cochlear Ltd (ASX: COH) share price is making up for lost time after sliding 15.9% in 2020.
Shares in the hearing devices company have rallied strongly this year, up 29.6% to $244.66.
The Cochlear share price set a new all-time record high of $255.55 on 30 June, briefly topping pre-COVID levels.
Let's take a look at what's driving the resurgence in one of the ASX's top healthcare companies.
Improving momentum for hearing devices market
Cochlear has been pretty quiet in terms of company announcements, with its last price-sensitive piece of news dating back to half-year results on 19 February.
Despite being a relatively old piece of company information, the half-year results cited:
Cochlear experienced improving momentum across the half as surgeries recovered following COVID shutdowns. The pace of recovery has varied across countries with strong growth recorded in the US, Japan, Korea and China, improving momentum in Western Europe and a slower recovery across most emerging markets.
The market reacted positively to the company's half-year results, with the Cochlear share price surging 7.85% on the day to $221.33.
Broader healthcare sector making headway
The Cochlear share price logged most of its gains between 20 May and 30 June, where it rallied 19.8% from $212.82 to $255.04.
During this time, the S&P/ASX 200 Healthcare (INDEXASX: XHJ) also lifted 11.49%.
Healthcare heavyweights including CSL Ltd (ASX: CSL), Sonic Healthcare Ltd (ASX: SHL), ResMed Inc (ASX:RMD) and Cochlear led this bullish charge.
More recently, the healthcare sector has been resilient in wake of a sharp pullback in the broader S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO).
On Monday, the ASX 200 tumbled 0.85% while the healthcare index rallied 1.62%.
In this week alone, the healthcare index has added 3.76%.
What's next for the Cochlear share price?
A recent update from leading fund manager Wilson Asset Management (WAM) said that "recent data points suggest Cochlear continues to benefit from market share gains as a result of competitor Advanced Bionics … announcing a recall of some of its cochlear implant devices in February 2020".
"Additionally, Cochlear remains a clear winner of the reopening trade and recent feedback from US audiologists suggest cochlear implant patient numbers are strongly above pre-coronavirus levels".
The commentary from WAM bodes well with the solid year-to-date performance of the Cochlear share price.
