Someone help me with this. I'm trying to understand the whole picture with VISX. Are these observations correct?
Visx has ranged from $26 to $103 over the last 52 weeks.
It seems that the price is down because "analyst" were not thrilled with the rate of revenue growth despite increasing cash flows, year over year. Also, after a preliminary ruling from the ICC that another laser manufacturer does not infringe on VISX patents, the fear is VISX will not be able to continue to collect royalties from each procedure performed using laser surgery. It appears this royalty ability is crucial because just selling laser hardware makes for a much smaller and less profitable company.
Some questions to be asked:
Is the foreign competition technology (lasers)better, and if not, would they also have the same problem existing on just hardware sales? Also, how quickly could they catch VISX in sales and sites controlled, assuming only equal technology?
How likely will the final ICC ruling be the same as the preliminary ruling, and is it true this will have no affect on US patent court litigation?
The key is in the laser patents. The procedure revenue is directly proportional to the productivity of the LVC's. Since the market has hardly been touched, VISX only has to hold its rights in the USA patent courts. A positive ruling, and would not this stock be back to its former levels? |
