Goldman Sachs Reiterates Buy and Increases PT to $73 on Stryker

Goldman Sachs reiterated its Buy rating on Stryker SYK after attending its annual investor meeting. At the same time, Goldman increased its price target from $71 to $73. In a research report published today, Goldman stressed its optimism about Stryker's launching of new products, as well as improving its end-user markets. In the report, Goldman states, "Stryker reiterated the company's focus on a balanced diversified portfolio, employing capital allocation through a combination of buybacks, dividends, and M&A, as well as increasing operation efficiency through means such as facility optimization. More broadly, the focus of the investor meeting primarily centered on new product introductions. Specifically, in hips Stryker plans to introduce a second generation of its Accolade hip product in September (called Accolade II) and commented that it continues to expect its MDM hip to remains a driver of share gains in 2011. Within knees, the company is still awaiting FDA approval of OtisMed, but mentioned that the Triathlon knee global launch has been progressing well. We maintain our Buy rating and favorable view on SYK as we expect a combination of new products and improving end-user markets to drive accelerating growth throughout the course of the year." On Wednesday, Stryker added 0.31% to its value to close the day at $73.