Medtronic Wins Billing Codes and FDA Nods While Barclays Abandons Bearish Stance

Barclays lifted Medtronic from Sell to Hold after quarterly revenue and EPS topped estimates, as new CPT codes and FDA clearances advanced its pipeline.

Barclays has thrown in the towel on its downbeat view of Medtronic, upgrading the medical device maker from "Sell" to "Hold" on Thursday. The shift in stance follows a quarter in which the company's top and bottom lines both cleared Wall Street's expectations, giving the British investment bank reason to reconsider its skeptical position.

Investors, however, greeted the change with little enthusiasm. In European trading the stock slipped 0.7% to EUR 76.02.

Quarterly Results Beat on Both Lines

For the period ending September 1, 2026, Medtronic posted revenue of USD 9.76 billion — a 13.7% increase year over year and ahead of the USD 9.55 billion consensus estimate. Adjusted earnings per share came in at USD 1.45, topping the USD 1.39 analysts had projected.

Management guided for adjusted EPS of USD 1.32 to USD 1.34 in the second quarter of fiscal 2027, while keeping its full-year target range unchanged at USD 5.94 to USD 6.00.

The broader analyst community was already more constructive than Barclays had been. Of the ratings on the stock, 18 are buys and ten are holds, with an average 12-month price target of USD 102.92 — implying meaningful room for recovery. Medtronic's market capitalization stands at EUR 99.52 billion.

Reimbursement Wins Open Doors for Two Therapies

Separately, Medtronic secured Category-I CPT codes for its Altaviva and Symplicity Spyral systems, a regulatory step that establishes dependable billing pathways within the U.S. healthcare system. Altaviva targets urge incontinence, while Symplicity Spyral is aimed at patients with hypertension. Fixed reimbursement categories give hospitals and physicians greater financial predictability — widely viewed in medtech as a prerequisite for rolling out novel therapies at scale.

Cardiovascular Platform Expands With Fresh Approvals

The company also widened its electrophysiology footprint. Medtronic obtained FDA clearance and European CE marking for the Prism-2 mapping software in its Affera product line. In addition, the PulseSelect ProxBox adapter, including its software component with a proximity indicator, received CE certification. These tools help cardiologists map and precisely ablate cardiac tissue, underscoring management's push to build out and secure its cardiac ablation platform across key markets.

MiniMed Spinoff Enters Final Stretch

Running alongside these operational moves is a portfolio cleanup. Medtronic is pressing ahead with the separation of its MiniMed Group unit and has fixed the final exchange ratio: participating shareholders will receive 4.5939 MiniMed shares for each Medtronic common share tendered.

The company is offering up to 225.36 million MiniMed shares in the transaction and intends to exchange the remaining 27.45 million shares in the event of oversubscription. On that basis, roughly 49.06 million Medtronic shares could initially be retired, rising to about 55.03 million if the offer is fully taken up. The exchange offer and all withdrawal rights expire at midnight New York time on October 9, 2026. The move marks a retreat from peripheral operations and a sharper focus on Medtronic's remaining core medtech segments.

Leadership Change in Ablation Unit

Alongside the structural adjustments, the company is reshuffling leadership in its main business. Felicia Kurz has taken the helm of the cardiac ablation solutions division, according to media reports.

Barclays initiated coverage of the stock on Tuesday with an "Equal Weight" rating and a USD 95 price target, pointing to weakness across the broader medical technology sector while flagging a stabilization of fundamental conditions heading into 2027. In today's session the shares added 0.2% to EUR 76.68, bringing the company to the same EUR 99.52 billion market value.

For investors, the key question is how quickly the newly formalized billing codes and software clearances translate into measurable revenue growth across Medtronic's medtech divisions.