There were some very interesting smaller cap earnings plays last week as I reviewed some of the largest movers in that space. Don't have time to get to them all via blog, but my watch list has been growing - "unfortunately" most of them had tremendous moves up post earnings so the question one always asks in these instance "to chase or not to the chase?". Indeed, that is the question. One such name is Thoratec (THOR) which is in the newest sexy sector of the market: healthcare. Specifically, it's in one of the few subsectors in healthcare I'll dip my toes in - equipment makers. Company website here.

Brief company description
Thoratec is a world leader in therapies to address advanced stage heart failure. The company's product lines include the Thoratec® VAD and HeartMate LVAS with nearly 12,000 devices implanted in patients suffering from heart failure. Additionally, its International Technidyne Corporation (ITC) Division supplies point-of-care blood testing and skin incision products.

As you can see from the chart below, the company has made quite a (round) trip over the past year
While the chart was perking up over the past 2 weeks, you could say the same for most every healthcare company so there was no indication technically of this sort of explosion as we saw post earnings.

The company was strolling along - ho hum 10% revenue growth two quarters ago, and then 12% revenue growth last quarter... nothing to get excited about. But this quarter? Try 44% on for size. And the star of the show is Heartmate II

The HeartMate II is Thoratec's first-line intermediate-to-chronic left ventricular assist device.