St. Jude’s Quadra provides STJ a stock boost

St. Jude Medical (NYSE:STJ) finished the day with a nearly 8 percent jump in stock price after announcing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of its long-awaited Unify Quadra cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillator and Quartet Left Ventricular Quadripolar Pacing Lead.

St. Jude’s stock closed at $38.44, up 7.7 percent over the previous day. But was it all Quadra? It was a good day for the stock market overall, though St. Jude’s stock price rose higher than most of its peers: Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) climbed 4.35 percent, Boston Scientific (NYSE:BSX) was up 6.31 percent (Boston Scientific received approval for three cardiac medical devices).

However, STJ’s stock price is still below a spike the stock received after its earnings in October.

Quadra is the cream of a series of upcoming products that excite analysts about St. Jude. The Quadra and Quartet use a pacing lead with four electrodes, which enables more pacing configurations and reduces common problems associated with implantable CRT systems, and ultimately results in fewer surgeries for patients.

“We estimate Quad-Pole technology from Medtronic Inc. and Boston Scientific Corp. are at least one to two years behind Quartet, so St. Jude has a meaningful lead,” Bloomberg quotedLarry Biegelsen, a Wells Fargo Securities analyst in New York, in a note to investors.