Abbott Laboratories: Buy Rating Backed by Volt PFA-Driven Incremental Growth and Strengthening Electrophysiology Position

Stifel Nicolaus analyst Rick Wise has maintained their bullish stance on ABT stock, giving a Buy rating yesterday.

Rick Wise has given his Buy rating due to a combination of factors related to Abbott’s improving competitive position in electrophysiology and the growth potential created by the Volt PFA approval. He views Volt as an important addition that closes a notable gap in Abbott’s atrial fibrillation ablation portfolio, allowing the company to better defend and potentially regain share where it had been losing to earlier PFA entrants. The catheter is tailored to high-volume de novo pulmonary vein isolation procedures and integrates with Abbott’s widely used EnSite mapping platform, which already supports a substantial portion of current PFA procedures in the U.S. This installed base provides a natural customer pool for Volt adoption and creates a pathway for incremental revenue as existing RF users and EnSite-based physicians trial the new system.
At the same time, Wise acknowledges that physician feedback on Volt is mixed, with some users citing handling challenges and greater procedural efficiency with competing systems, and he does not assume that Volt will unseat Boston Scientific’s Farapulse or Medtronic’s Affera as market leaders. However, he sees upside optionality in Volt-driven sales if the launch progresses faster than expected, if Abbott leverages pricing strategically, and if clinical experience improves perceptions of the technology over time. Combined with Abbott’s broader cardiovascular and medical technology franchises, he concludes that the risk/reward remains attractive, supporting a Buy rating even though Volt is more likely to be a solid incremental growth driver than a disruptive market share winner.

In another report released yesterday, TD Cowen also reiterated a Buy rating on the stock with a $145.00 price target.