Stryker Stock Declines as Manufacturing Issues Continue

By Kelly Cloonan Shares of Stryker declined after the company said a lack of supply continues to hamper its peripheral vascular business. The stock fell 8.1% to $278.71 Tuesday. Shares are down 21% year to date. Recent manufacturing issues are "not allowing us to reach a full supply of inventory at all of our customers and quite frankly, not allowing us to go out and really win new business," Chief Financial Officer Preston Wells said during a Wells Fargo conference Tuesday. The medical technology company had expected the issues to get resolved in the third quarter, but Wells said it now expects the trouble to continue into the fourth quarter. "Peripheral vascular isn't quite seeing that same recovery that we would have expected from a supply standpoint," he said. "It's just a matter of us continuing to work on generating supply for the rest of the rest of the year or two to continue to support customers." Wells also pointed to softness in Stryker's joint replacement business, where the company had expected trends to improve in the summer. Instead, the company observed more of the seasonality that it typically sees in that business, he said. "We actually did not see the recovery that we expected so far in the quarter, although we are anticipating to have a better September, certainly a little bit slower than anticipated from a joint replacement standpoint in the second quarter," he said. Write to Kelly Cloonan at kelly.cloonan@wsj.com (END) Dow Jones Newswires 09-08-26 1217ET