Goldman Sachs’ Top Fund Manager Stock Picks: 25 Best Overweight Stocks

11. Medtronic plc (NYSE:MDT)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q2 2024: 114

Overweight Percentage: 0.12%

Medtronic plc (NYSE:MDT) is an Ireland based American medical devices manufacturer. One of the biggest companies of its kind, the firm sells products that aid patients in managing more than 70 different diseases. Its sizeable portfolio and market have enabled Medtronic plc (NYSE:MDT) to develop fortress balance sheets and income statements. As of its Q1 FY25, the firm had $7.8 billion in cash and short term investments and it had generated $32.6 billion in trailing twelve month sales. These enable Medtronic plc (NYSE:MDT) to have a robust development pipeline, such as a device for treating blood pressure by using radio waves which was approved by the FDA in November 2023. Products like the blood pressure device provide Medtronic plc (NYSE:MDT)  with a wide moat that few or no other companies in the world can match. The shares have faced some trouble recently because of global supply chain troubles and the departure of Medtronic plc (NYSE:MDT)’s CFO, but there’s a high chance that these developments are transitory. Further potential catalysts for the stock can include a device under development to help stop sudden heart attacks and a new transcatheter aortic valve replacement device.

During the Q1 2025 earnings call, Medtronic plc (NYSE:MDT)’s management shared the opportunities it can capture with its hypertension products:

“Securing broad reimbursement remains key to unlocking the opportunity to our simplicity blood pressure procedure. We were pleased that CMS has finalized the inpatient payment and has now proposed an outpatient payment. And we continue to engage with CMS at the national and local levels to establish coverage, a key enabler so that this therapy can reach patients.

Now this is important as hypertension affects more than 1 billion people globally and nearly half of all US adults. Despite the availability of numerous classes of pharmaceuticals, only one in four adults in the US have their hypertension under control. Furthermore, more than 700,000 deaths in the US every year are directly attributable to hypertension. And the burden of hypertension cost the US health care system between $100 billion and $200 billion a year. So you can see why there is just an important role for our simplicity procedure to cost-effectively improve public health.”