When the COVID-19 pandemic began a little more than two years ago, elective surgeries nearly vanished and even so-called necessary surgeries diminished as they took a back seat to COVID care.

Now it appears that surgeries are bouncing back. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) just reported good results for its medtech segment, and that's a good bellwether for such surgical stocks as Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ: ISRG) and Stryker Corporation (NYSE: SYK). Let's take a look at each of them.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) had its third-quarter earnings call last week. While MedTech is just one of four J&J segments, it did $6.7 billion in sales in the quarter, up 2.1% year over year. Ashley McEvoy, the worldwide chairman of its Medical Devices segment, said surgeries are returning to pre-pandemic levels.

Continue reading

Source Fool.com