Boston Scientific’s share price — which medical device competitors have long envied — sputtered Feb. 4 after the company reported softer sales than expected in its blockbuster division treating heart conditions.
The stock closed down more than 17% following news of the slower sales, representing its largest single-day drop in years.
In the fourth quarter, the company’s pulsed field ablation (PFA) procedure grew less in the United States than Wall Street analysts expected. CEO Mike Mahoney described this market as “more highly penetrated” than the global market for the procedure, which uses tools in a noninvasive catheter to apply electric pulses to treat atrial fibrillation.
More than 12 million Americans have atrial fibrillation, a recurrent condition that feels like a fluttering heart and which creates the risk of serious strokes because it allows non-circulating blood to pool in the heart and form clots.
Mahoney said other competitors overestimated market growth for the fourth quarter. He said Boston Scientific has been consistent in communicating about the electrophysiology market, which includes the blockbuster PFA procedure.
“When you’re the highest market share leader in PFA and competitors are coming out, we planned and we did expect to lose some share given the competitive launches that are coming out and given our really dominant market share position going into 2025,” Mahoney said.
Boston Scientific’s stock price was down despite the company posting quarterly revenue and profit that did not fail Wall Street expectations. The company with a large Minnesota presence posted adjusted profit of $1.2 billion on about $5.29 billion in sales.
The declining stock price brings the company’s shares down about a quarter over the past year. This drop is abrupt for shareholders, as the company’s share price had more than tripled between the start of the pandemic and February 2025.
