The share price of FTSE 100 listed medical devices company Smith & Nephew (LSE: SN) has steadily climbed for a number of years, reaching a peak of over 2,000p earlier this year. £100,000 invested back when Westlife topped the charts with ‘I Have A Dream’ at the Millennium would have risen to a cool million by February 2020.
However, since February, revenues have been hit by the coronavirus pandemic and the share price now sits around 25% below its year high. For new investors, does this dip represent a buying opportunity to make your million?
FTSE 100 stalwart
Smith & Nephew has been a constituent member of the FTSE 100 since 2001. At just under 2%, its dividend might not be much to write home about but it’s progressive and the company has paid a dividend every year since before World War II. In a sea of dividend cuts, such reliability coupled with a cast iron balance sheet is reassuring.
I’m also bullish in the long-term growth story for Smith & Nephew. Just under half its revenue is generated from orthopaedics, so things like knee joints, braces and hip replacements. The remainder is from a combination of wound management, trauma services and increasingly surgical robotics.
As my Foolish colleague Edward Sheldon points out, with the world population growing and people living longer, the market opportunity for this FTSE 100 share is rapidly expanding.
Recession-proof, but not pandemic-proof
Whilst healthcare can largely weather a recession, the coronavirus severely limited elective surgeries. In a July trading update, Smith & Nephew confirmed second-quarter revenues would decline around 29% as a result. This mainly impacted its orthopaedic and sports medicine divisions as people chose to delay their surgery.
However, the FTSE 100 company announced its revenues were strongly correlated to the easing of lockdown restrictions and performance had improved during each month of the quarter.
Broker Berenburg certainly sees a bright future, reiterating a buy rating on this FTSE 100 stock with a target price of 2,165p. It believes that as elective surgeries resume, revenues should return to ‘near-normal’ levels by 2021. From then on, Berenburg predicts continued above market revenue growth.
Could history repeat itself?
If I had £100,000 to invest, I would not be advocating putting it all in one share of course. But I do think Smith & Nephew is one of the best FTSE 100 growth shares. With a P/E ratio of 19, and after the recent dip in share price, I see a lot of value here – and with a 20-year plus investing horizon ahead of me, Smith & Nephew is part of my diversified portfolio in my own quest to make a million.
