By Kamal Choudhury
May 27 (Reuters) – Boston Scientific shares sank to their lowest in over two years on Wednesday, after the medical device maker warned it was facing pressure due to softer uptake of its heart disease device.
Boston Scientific’s stock, which has tumbled about 46% so far this year, fell 11.8% to $50.83 in afternoon trading.
The comments added to investors’ concerns, as the Watchman heart device has been among the most important growth engines for the company.
“What’s happened in 2026 is we’ve seen a declining usage of Watchman stand-alone procedures,” CEO Michael Mahoney said at Bernstein’s annual conference.
Watchman is a small implant placed in the heart to prevent blood clots from forming and causing strokes, especially in patients with atrial fibrillation.
Mahoney added that changing treatment patterns are driving the shift, with doctors increasingly combining Watchman procedures with other heart treatments during a single visit, rather than performing it as a standalone procedure.
“With the declining standalone Watchman and growing concomitant, we basically want to set an expectation of flat dollar growth from first quarter to second quarter, and likely in the third quarter,” Mahoney said.
He added that the company was comfortable with its full-year organic revenue growth forecast of 6.5% to 8%, a range it was forced to pare down to earlier this year from loftier expectations.
“This is lower than our expectations and we are now questioning the growth rate of Watchman,” said Piper Sandler analysts.
Boston Scientific had already cut its annual forecast earlier this year, citing pressure in the Watchman business as one of the key reasons for the downgrade, along with challenges in other segments.
“The top question investors had boiled down to ‘are the negative revisions over and can the management team set a floor, build off it, and repair investor trust?’ This update pushes off a ‘yes’ answer to a further date,” said J.P. Morgan analyst Robbie Marcus.
(Reporting by Kamal Choudhury in Bengaluru; Editing by Joyjeet Das and Diti Pujara)
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