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UK medical-device maker producing orthopedic implants (hips/knees), sports medicine and advanced wound-care products.
UK medical-device maker producing orthopedic implants (hips/knees), sports medicine and advanced wound-care products.
Sells implants and surgical instruments to hospitals, which usually receive instrument sets on loan alongside the implants, and wound-care dressings and devices to health systems. Orthopedics is the largest of its three businesses and the US the biggest market. The shares are also listed as ADRs in New York.
In one line: A UK medtech peer to Stryker or Zimmer Biomet, but smaller.
Moat: narrow (switching costs, customer qualification, IP). Surgeon training and preference for implant systems and instrument sets create switching costs once adopted.
Headquarters: London, UK · Founded: 1856 · Employees: 18,362
Size Smith & Nephew (SN..L) is a United Kingdom Health Care company (Medical Specialties) with a market value of $13.1B, the 45th largest of 363 United Kingdom companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at £1,161 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 5.3%, against +31.2% for the median peer and +3.6% for the United Kingdom market (cap-weighted) — 6th lowest of 21 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 2.2% over the last twelve months (peer median +5.0%); the operating margin is 17.1% (peer median 15.7%).
Valuation It trades at 14.4× forward earnings against a peer median of 20.4× (6th cheapest of 21).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 11% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +6%, so the hurdle is +5 pp: the price needs faster growth than the company has been delivering — of companies that just grew 25–50% a year, 93.8% slowed down over the next four years.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 0.4 points below its cost of capital (10.1% WACC).
Credit Smith & Nephew has 2 bonds outstanding ($1.11B), rated BBB+ by the agencies and trading like BBB- at a weighted spread of 111 bp.
Next results Next results expected around 1 Mar 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | £4.69B | £4.68B | £4.55B | £4.46B | £4.23B |
| Revenue growth | — | +3% | +2% | +5% | — |
| Gross profit | £3.20B | £3.13B | £3.02B | £2.98B | £2.82B |
| EBITDA | £1.25B | £1.24B | £1.20B | £1.18B | £1.08B |
| Net income | £473M | £474M | £322M | £212M | £181M |
| Free cash flow | £631M | £646M | £474M | £146M | £90.1M |
| Capital expenditure | £357M | £329M | £298M | £344M | £291M |
| Total debt | n/a | £2.47B | £2.65B | £2.42B | £2.39B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smith & Nephew SN..L | $13.1B | +5% | +2% | 17% | 14.4× | 11.1% |
| Stryker SYK | $124B | +14% | +8% | 25% | 20.4× | 10.6% |
| Zimmer Biomet ZBH | $20.1B | +29% | +7% | 16% | 12.0× | -1.4% |
| Johnson & Johnson JNJ | $665B | +26% | +8% | 26% | 24.5× | 3.5% |
| ConvaTec CTEC.L | $6.44B | +22% | +2% | 16% | 16.7× | 15.6% |
| Medtronic MDT | $130B | +35% | +10% | 20% | 16.9× | 8.6% |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | SN..L | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +15.7% | +10.8% | 8th highest of 21 |
| 6-month return | +5.3% | +31.2% | 6th lowest of 21 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -16.9% | -12.5% | 9th lowest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +2.2% | +5.0% | 5th lowest of 21 |
| Operating margin | 17.1% | 15.7% | 9th highest of 21 |
| Forward P/E | 14.4× | 20.4× | 6th cheapest of 21 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 11.1% | 10.8% | 10th least demanding of 19 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +5.6% | +8.5% | 8th lowest of 19 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +5.5 pp | +5.0 pp | 10th least demanding of 19 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | -0.4 pp | +2.2 pp | 10th lowest of 21 |
| EV / EBITDA | 9.6× | 14.8× | 4th cheapest of 18 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 1.8× | 1.8× | 9th most indebted of 18 |
| Bond spread | 111 bp | 95 bp | 3rd widest of 8 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smith & Nephew SN..L | United Kingdom | $13.1B | +5% | +2% | 17% | 14.4× | 11.1% | +5.6% |
| Glaukos GKOS | United States | $13.3B | +68% | +47% | -9% | 155.4× | n/a | n/a |
| Baxter International BAX | United States | $13.3B | +43% | +5% | 6% | 12.6× | 12.7% | -0.7% |
| Lenskart Solutions LENSKART.NS | India | $13.4B | +49% | +35% | 10% | 137.4× | 52.8% | +33.5% |
| Penumbra PEN | United States | $12.6B | -1% | +17% | 12% | 54.9× | 30.1% | +20.2% |
| bioMerieux BIM.PA | France | $12.4B | +29% | -3% | 15% | 20.9× | 8.9% | +5.5% |
| Olympus 7733.T | Japan | $12.2B | +13% | +8% | 16% | 18.0× | -1.5% | +6.7% |
| Cooper Companies (The) COO | United States | $11.9B | +4% | +5% | 19% | 13.8× | 9.4% | +11.0% |
| Align Technology ALGN | United States | $11.8B | -2% | +4% | 19% | 13.9× | 11.4% | +10.3% |
| Demant A/S DEMANT.CO | Denmark | $11.6B | +62% | +10% | 18% | 25.7× | 6.8% | +9.8% |
| Shanghai United Imaging Healthcare 688271.SS | China | $14.8B | +9% | +27% | 9% | 46.9× | n/a | n/a |
| Avantor AVTR | United States | $10.5B | +86% | +1% | 8% | 17.7× | 16.1% | +0.5% |
| Qiagen QGEN | United States | $10.4B | +52% | +3% | 25% | 19.8× | 8.8% | +2.2% |
| Bio-Rad Laboratories BIO | United States | $10.3B | +50% | +1% | 9% | 35.7× | 26.5% | +0.3% |
| Insulet PODD | United States | $10.2B | -5% | +26% | 18% | 19.5× | 10.3% | +24.5% |
| Revvity RVTY | United States | $17.3B | +54% | +5% | 15% | 26.7× | 27.3% | -5.5% |
| Coloplast A/S COLO-B.CO | Denmark | $17.7B | +26% | +4% | 25% | 19.9× | -1.8% | +8.3% |
| Globus Medical GMED | United States | $9.54B | -9% | +20% | 22% | 14.1× | 5.5% | +30.1% |
| Bruker BRKR | United States | $9.34B | +39% | +2% | 9% | 26.2× | 25.7% | +11.6% |
| Sartorius SRT.DE | Germany | $20.0B | +34% | +4% | 18% | 42.6× | 24.9% | +8.7% |
| Zimmer Biomet ZBH | United States | $20.1B | +29% | +7% | 16% | 12.0× | -1.4% | +3.2% |
Smith & Nephew has 2 bonds outstanding with $1.11B face value. The agencies rate it BBB+; its bonds trade like BBB-. Weighted yield 4.25%, a spread of 111 bp over government bonds.