NEW YORK (AP) -- Election-year uneasiness, a stricter regulatory environment with the Food and Drug Administration, and concerns over Medicare reimbursement levels will likely put negative pressure on medical device and supply companies throughout the year, according to a Credit Suisse analyst.
Analyst Kristen Stewart said the sector is up by 1 percent, compared with a 7.9 percent decline in the S&P 500 index, year-to-date. But, the sector has flattened in March, while the S&P 500 gained 1.7 percent.
''If the S&P 500 continues to find higher ground, med-tech may be subject to modest relative underperformance,'' she said in a note to investors.
Still, she said, several stocks, including Edwards Lifesciences Corp. and Becton Dickinson and Co., could perform well.
Also, stent developers face a less controversial annual meeting of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Intervention and American College of Cardiology, which begins Saturday. Last year, study data inadvertently released around the meeting showed bare metal stents failed to reduce deaths or heart attacks.
Stewart expects a plethora of study data on stents and heart devices at this year's conference, but nothing that will prompt any rating changes.
The stent and heart device makers releasing study data will include Natick, Mass.-based Boston Scientific Corp., which saw its shares fall 14 cents to $12.83 in afternoon trading. Meanwhile, St. Paul, Minn.-based St. Jude Medical Inc. shares rose 6 cents to $43.33.
Shares of Irvine, Calif.-based Edwards, which makes heart valves and other heart devices, fell 1 cent to $45.51, and Franklin Lakes, N.J.-based Becton, Dickinson & Co. fell $1.40 to $87.57. Other companies with upside potential, she said, include Bermuda-based Covidien Ltd. and Northbrook, Ill.-based Nanosphere Inc.
Covidien shares rose 92 cents, or 2.2 percent, to $43.53, while Nanosphere shares fell 12 cents to $7.58.
Elsewhere in the sector, North Chicago, Ill.-based Abbott fell 43 cents to $54.09, while shares of its competitor, Minneapolis-based Medtronic Inc., fell 30 cents to $48.25.
