Elekta AB Stock Finds Its Footing as Oncology Spending Reaccelerates

After a brutal multi?year selloff, Elekta AB’s share price is quietly rebuilding investor trust, powered by stabilizing margins, new AI?driven products and a thaw in hospital capex.

Radiotherapy Pioneer in the Shadow of Volatility

Elekta AB, the Swedish maker of radiotherapy and radiosurgery systems, has lived through almost every macro headwind a capital?equipment vendor can face: postponed hospital spending during the pandemic, stretched order books from component shortages, and aggressive competition from U.S. giant Varian and Japan’s Elekta?partner?turned?rival, Accuray. Yet the stock’s recent behavior suggests something new: investors are beginning to price in a period of quieter execution and cautiously improving fundamentals.

On the Stockholm exchange, Elekta’s B?share has been trading in a relatively tight band in recent sessions, with modest gains over the last week and a constructive tone in daily volumes. The 5?day trend has been slightly upward, hinting at incremental buying interest rather than the sharp, speculative spikes typical of momentum trades. Over the last three months, the share has staged a more noticeable recovery from its autumn lows, though it still sits well below its multi?year peak.

From a technical perspective, the stock is hovering closer to the mid?range of its 52?week corridor rather than hugging either extreme. The 52?week low, carved out during a bout of broader med?tech risk aversion, is now a good distance below the current quote. The 52?week high, by contrast, remains an aspirational level that would require a material re?rating: stronger order growth, concrete margin expansion and cleaner cash conversion. The message from the tape is not euphoria but a kind of measured optimism – a stance increasingly echoed by analysts following the name.

One-Year Investment Performance

For investors who quietly stuck with Elekta AB a year ago, the story today looks considerably less bleak than it did during the worst of the med?tech drawdown. Based on exchange data, the closing price roughly a year earlier sat markedly below the current level, reflecting a market deeply skeptical about hospital capital expenditure and worried about Elekta’s ability to protect margins while investing in new platforms such as its Unity MR?linac and software upgrades.

Roll the tape forward twelve months and that discount has narrowed. On a point?to?point basis, Elekta’s share price shows a solid double?digit percentage gain over the period. It is not the kind of blistering performance seen in hot AI or semiconductor names, but in the relatively defensive world of radiotherapy systems, that move represents a meaningful rehabilitation of sentiment. Long?term holders who endured the volatility effectively front?ran a gradual normalization in oncology budgets as hospitals resumed medium? and long?term planning for cancer treatment infrastructure.

Emotionally, the past year has been a test of conviction. Early on, each incremental headline about inflation squeezing hospital budgets or procurement delays seemed to confirm the bear case. Gradually, however, quarterly reports began to show improving order intake, better pricing discipline and the first signs that supply?chain frictions were abating. As those data points accumulated, the market shifted from asking whether Elekta could recover at all to how quickly it might close the performance gap versus larger peers. The one?year chart now tells a story less about survival and more about rehabilitation and selective re?rating.

Recent Catalysts and News

Recent weeks have brought a cluster of developments that, while not individually transformative, together reinforce the narrative that Elekta is entering a more predictable phase. Earlier this month, the company updated investors on its order pipeline in key growth regions, highlighting particularly resilient demand in emerging markets where radiotherapy capacity remains structurally undersupplied. That commentary dovetailed with broader industry data indicating that global oncology treatment volumes are still rising faster than many healthcare systems can keep pace, giving suppliers like Elekta a long runway for replacement and greenfield installations.

Around the same time, the company spotlighted progress in its software and services strategy – a critical swing factor for margins. Elekta has been pushing deeper into oncology information systems, treatment planning software and AI?assisted workflow tools designed to make radiotherapy departments more efficient. Recent communication to the market underscored that recurring revenue from software and service contracts is growing as a share of the total mix. For investors, that matters: equipment cycles can be lumpy, but a richer layer of recurring, higher?margin revenue helps smooth earnings and supports a higher valuation multiple.

There has also been renewed attention to Elekta’s flagship Unity MR?linac system, which combines magnetic resonance imaging with radiotherapy to enable more precise tumor targeting. While Unity adoption has been slower than initially hoped, the most recent clinical and commercial updates suggest a steady, if not explosive, ramp with a widening base of academic and high?volume centers. In an environment where payers are scrutinizing every capital allocation decision, accumulating real?world data and longer follow?up periods could strengthen Unity’s economic case and, by extension, Elekta’s competitive positioning in the premium segment of the market.

Wall Street Verdict & Price Targets

Sell?side sentiment toward Elekta AB has shifted from outright skepticism to guarded neutrality with pockets of optimism. Over the past month, several major investment banks and Nordic brokers have refreshed their models and price targets. While the distribution of recommendations still leans toward "Hold," the tone of recent notes has been less about downside risk and more about upside execution.

Among larger international houses, the consensus 12?month target price now sits modestly above the current trading level, implying mid? to high?single?digit percentage upside. A handful of more bullish analysts see scope for double?digit appreciation if Elekta can deliver on operating margin expansion and sustain mid?single?digit organic growth in orders. Those more constructive calls typically rest on three pillars: accelerating software and services revenue, gradual normalization of hospital procurement cycles, and disciplined capital allocation that keeps leverage in check while preserving R&D intensity.

Others remain wary. Some analysts with "Sell" or "Underperform" ratings argue that competitive pressures from larger players with broader product portfolios could cap Elekta’s pricing power, particularly in mature markets where replacement cycles, rather than greenfield expansion, dominate. They also flag execution risk in complex, multi?year installations and the possibility that further macro shocks could again delay hospital capital spending. Still, even the skeptics now tend to frame their argument as a relative rather than absolute call – Elekta as a laggard within med?tech, not a structurally broken story.

Beneath the headline ratings, there is a notable convergence around a few key variables to watch: order growth in North America and Asia, the proportion of recurring revenue to total sales, and the trajectory of the EBIT margin. Analysts who revise their targets higher typically do so after evidence that these metrics are trending in the right direction; those marking estimates down often point to softer orders or slower?than?expected margin improvement in recent quarters.

Future Prospects and Strategy

Looking ahead, Elekta’s strategic path is defined by a tension familiar to most med?tech players: how to fund cutting?edge innovation while delivering the steady, compounding returns that long?term investors crave. The company’s answer leans heavily on a dual approach: pushing the frontier in image?guided and adaptive radiotherapy at the high end, while simultaneously driving more standardized, cost?efficient solutions for hospitals facing budget constraints. In practice, that means continued investment in the Unity MR?linac, AI?assisted treatment planning and cloud?enabled oncology information systems, even as Elekta refines its more traditional linac offerings for volume markets.

Geographically, emerging markets are likely to remain a central growth engine. Large parts of Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa still have far fewer radiotherapy machines per capita than Europe or North America. Elekta’s ability to tailor configurations and service models to these regions – including more modular installations, flexible financing arrangements and localized training – will shape its growth trajectory. Success here would not only lift top?line growth but also diversify revenue away from more saturated geographies where competition is fiercest and tenders are heavily price?driven.

At the same time, management is under pressure to prove that the worst of the margin volatility is behind the company. Investors will be watching closely for evidence of operating leverage: can Elekta convert incremental revenues into proportionally higher operating profit as supply?chain disruptions fade and software scales? The company’s focus on higher?margin service contracts, lifecycle management and digital add?ons is designed precisely to answer that question. If that mix shift materializes, the market may begin to treat Elekta less as a cyclical capital?goods name and more as a hybrid equipment?and?software platform with a structurally higher profitability profile.

There are, of course, risks. Healthcare budgets in many countries remain under acute strain, and radiotherapy – while essential – competes with other priorities such as diagnostics, surgery and primary care. Policy changes, reimbursement pressures and shifting national cancer strategies can all alter the timeline for new installations. Technologically, rivals are racing to integrate AI, imaging and automation into their own platforms, raising the bar for differentiation. Elekta will need to prove not just that its solutions work, but that they deliver superior clinical outcomes and workflow efficiency that justify the investment.

For now, however, the market appears willing to give the company time. The stock’s recovery over the past year, the more balanced tone of analyst research and a steadier backdrop for hospital capex all point to an inflection from defense to cautious offense. For investors weighing exposure to the global fight against cancer through the lens of listed equities, Elekta AB offers a case study in how a once?embattled med?tech name can quietly rebuild credibility – one quarter, one installation and one patient at a time.