If you think the rally has passed you by, that everything's too expensive, which is too bad because you would have liked to have played the bonanza that government is creating in the health industry, then I've got a stock for you.
Hansen Medical (
HNSN) is not for the fainthearted, but it can work in the speculative part of your portfolio. From $30 two years ago to less than $3 now, it qualifies as one of the recession's bargain bin candidates. So far this year, it's down from $8. As far as the price goes, it's cheap among the cheap.
Fine, but is it any good? Everybody knows most things are cheap for a reason. Maybe this one-among-hundreds health industry participant doesn't stand a chance. Let's see.
It's "the global leader in flexible robotics," but I'm sure you already knew that. Its "next-generation robotic catheter system, Sensei X, overcomes the limitations of manual technique by facilitating accurate positioning, manipulation, and stable control of catheter and catheter-based technologies during electrophysiology (EP) procedures." In short, if you're a doctor and you want an easy way to get catheters right where they need to be, Hansen has the flexible robot for you. What doctor involved in any way with catheters can go another day without a placement tool that uses Instinctive Motion?
Never heard of it? Well, it's the firm's proprietary technology that "accurately and responsively translates the physician's hand movements at the motion controller to the robotically controlled steerable catheter in the patient's anatomy." Who wouldn't jump at the chance to drive that? Moreover, who wouldn't jump when it was steered into their anatomy?
Turns out, there's quite a market for such technology. In the last year, for instance, there were 60,000 ablation procedures performed, not including mine. What's that? You haven't heard of ablation? Come on, it's the hottest trend in getting your flip-flopping heart under control, a service widely demanded by investors. If you haven't had trouble with your heart rate, you're not spending enough time in Bernanke's House of Tax-Funded Horrors.
Anyway, according to
WebMD, ablation is "used to treat abnormal heart rhythms, or arrhythmias." They often happen first thing in the morning when you see that world markets are up dramatically because the G20 says more deficit spending and easy monetary policy are guaranteed forever! Just try to still your wildly beating heart in the face of that headline.
With 60,000 hearts needing a flexible robot driven into them last year alone, Hansen makes the perfect product to go with any stock investor's portfolio.
