There's one industry within one sector that's absolutely pulverized the S&P/ASX 200 Index (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) over the past three months, and you'll never guess what it is.
These five companies that have all beaten the ASX200 by a minimum 16.8%, and they all have one thing in common. They're in the healthcare sector and they all produce medical devices.
While the healthcare sector has hardly moved in the last 90 days, the same can't be said for some of its serious out-performers:
| Company | 3 month outperformance |
| REVA Medical Inc (ASX: RVA) | 47.57% |
| Airxpanders Inc (ASX: AXP) | 32.94% |
| Ellex Medical Lasers Limited (ASX: ELX) | 20.46% |
| Cochlear Limited (ASX: COH) | 18.91% |
| Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Corp Ltd (ASX: FPH) | 16.75% |
(Source:Commsec)
Reva Medical Inc
Reva is a medical device company located in San Diego, California. It's focused on developing bioresorbable stents, which are called "scaffolds" because of their temporary nature. Scaffolds provide restoration of blood flow, support the artery through the healing process, then disappear from the body over a period of time.
AirXpanders Inc
Breast cancer is the second leading cause of death in women globally. In the US alone, there are approximately 300,000 new diagnoses of female breast cancer every year, 36% of early-stage patients and 60% of late-stage patients receive a mastectomy.
AirXpanders is a US-based company that produces AeroForm tissue expander for breast reconstruction following mastectomy.
Ellex Medical Lasers
Ellex Medical Lasers is an Australian based company that produces lasers and diagnostic equipment for the treatment of various stages of blindness and eye disease.
I could go into a whole bunch of explanations about what their laser technology does, terms like capsulotomy, photocoagulation, vitreous strands, opacities, and eye cubed diagnostics but, all you need to know is they have 20,000 lasers and ultrasound systems around the world being used to fight blindness and eye disease.
Cochlear Limited
Everyone's heard of Cochlear. They make implants for the hearing impaired. The company offers three main products. Cochlear implants, baha bone conduction implants, and wireless accessories:
- Cochlear implants are a device for people with moderate to profound hearing loss
- Baha bone conduction implants are a device for people with conductive hearing loss, mixed hearing loss and single-sided deafness
- Cochlear wireless accessories help users to explore sound without the constraints of wires and bulky components
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare is a New Zealand-based company that produces devices for use in respiratory care, acute care and the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea.
Fisher & Paykel's respiratory and acute care devices include respiratory humidifiers and obstructive sleep solutions such as Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) devices, masks and humidifiers.
