Dexcom
Share price on Dec. 31, 2019: $218.74
Share price on Dec. 31, 2020: $369.72
Change: +69%
COVID-19 provided a learning curve for everyone, including diabetes giant Dexcom (NSDQ:DXCM) and its chairman, president & CEO Kevin Sayer.
“Anybody who says they’re prepared for something like this, they’re better than me,” Sayer told Medical Design & Outsourcing recently. “I think we’re just learning as we go.”
Learning on the go proved successful for Dexcom, which saw its already large per-share price skyrocket nearly 70% over the course of 2020, with innovation in the continuous glucose monitoring space continuing to come from the San Diego-based company.
The company has done its best to help vulnerable diabetes patients during the pandemic, as Sayer said nearly 250 U.S. hospitals contacted Dexcom, with more than 100 using the G6 continuous glucose monitor (CGM) — designed for home use — to manage patients’ glucose values so staff can respond to other health issues.
Meanwhile, business continues to boom. William Blair analyst Margaret Kaczor listed Dexcom as one of her firm’s “best-sounding names” coming out of the third quarter and highlighted potential growth of 20% or more through 2022.
“We expect share momentum can be supported by near- and long-term commercial and product catalysts as well as an increasingly profitable business model,” Kaczor’s analysis said. “Further, while still early, we expect Dexcom will continue to execute on expensing its [total available market] into new opportunities such as hospital use and gestational diabetes, which could support durable long-term growth.”
Dexcom managed to sell a $1.05 billion aggregate principal amount of its convertible senior notes back in May while continuing to churn out strong quarterly financial results. On top of that, Dexcom made progress on the production side of the business, too:
- CE Mark approval in Europe for its G6 CGM system.
- Signing a five-year collaboration agreement with the University of Virginia for CGM research.
- A joint diabetes management program for U.S. healthcare providers with Eli Lilly.
Sayer was optimistic about Dexcom’s growth down the line, and with analysts like Kaczor thinking the same, 2021 could be another big year.