What Could Go Wrong At Boston Scientific From Here

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Boston Scientific (BSX) stock fell 56.8% over the past twelve months, while the S&P 500 returned 9.8%. The company cut its outlook again on its October 28, 2026 call, saying it expects fourth-quarter sales to fall. A cyber incident shut down operations for two weeks and accounted for part of the damage, but management also described a problem that will outlast the outage. So what is the problem that management expects to last through 2027?

Rivals Are Taking Share From Boston Scientific's EP Business

Management used the call to highlight competition and market changes in two businesses, EP and WATCHMAN. EP sales in the third quarter of fiscal 2026 fell 5% from a year earlier, with an 8% drop in the U.S. Management said the company's strong share position in EP has eroded as new technologies entered the market. The cyber incident sped up some of that shift, but management expects the erosion to continue until a new EP product launches in early 2028.

The EP market itself is not shrinking. Management said on the same call that it remains very strong, suggesting the lost sales are going to other products rather than disappearing.

WATCHMAN faces a slowing market. Its U.S. sales fell 7% from a year earlier in the quarter. Management said the market slowdown mainly reflects changes in how patients are identified and referred, and it expects a new competitive launch to add to the pressure in 2027. Both businesses are now weighing on company-wide growth, management said.

How Much Of Boston Scientific's Sales Is Exposed?

EP and WATCHMAN make up about a quarter of Boston Scientific's business, and management described the remaining 75% as growing consistently. Company revenue grew 1.4% from a year earlier in the third quarter of fiscal 2026, compared with 20.3% in the third quarter of fiscal 2025. Management estimates the cyber incident took about 300 basis points off that quarter's growth, making the outage only part of the slowdown. Some of the lost sales came back once operations resumed, management said.

Management does not expect the rest of the business to fill the gap in 2027. It said growth elsewhere likely will not offset the pressure from EP and WATCHMAN, with more price cuts expected in China. Leaving aside the pending purchase of Penumbra, management said the company will be challenged to grow sales that year.

The share price has already come down a long way. The stock closed 59.3% below its highest close of the past year on November 6, 2026. It now sells for 2.9 times its last twelve months of sales. That is below 3.0 times, the lowest multiple at any of the past 40 quarter ends. By comparison, Boston Scientific sold for 8.6 times sales on June 30, 2025, the highest in that span. On earnings, the stock trades at 17.7 times, against 21.8 times for the S&P 500.

How Worried Should Boston Scientific Holders Be?

The threat is real and lasting, and the price appears to assume much of it already. Management raised the issue itself and put a date on the low point, saying it expects 2027 to be the trough and aims to return to high performance in 2028.

That is a forecast, and some of the products behind it have already slipped. Management said several of its big platforms are running about 6 months late, because they face complex clinical trials and regulatory reviews. By management's own account, the pressure from EP and WATCHMAN will last at least through 2027.

Boston Scientific is expected to report its fourth-quarter 2026 results in February 2027. In that report, EP sales growth against a year earlier is the figure to watch.

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