Stryker drew 11 news stories in the 24 hours to 30 October, against a usual 1.1 a day. Reports say the company's third-quarter results missed expectations and that it cut full-year guidance, citing a slowdown in hip and knee procedures. The filings show a different picture: profit is outgrowing sales, and that gap is the reason a reader should care.
Source: SEC EDGAR XBRL company facts. Latest period shown: FY26 Q3.
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| Period | Revenue growth, TTM YoY | Operating margin (TTM) | FCF margin (TTM) |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY24 Q4 | 10.2% | 16.3% | 15.4% |
| FY25 Q1 | 10.8% | 15.3% | 15.4% |
| FY25 Q2 | 11.4% | 15.2% | 16.9% |
| FY25 Q3 | 11.0% | 15.0% | 16.7% |
| FY25 Q4 | 11.2% | 19.5% | 17.1% |
| FY26 Q1 | 8.8% | 19.7% | 18.1% |
| FY26 Q2 | 8.5% | 21.4% | 18.2% |
| FY26 Q3 | 7.9% | 20.7% | 17.4% |
Profit is outgrowing sales
Net income rose 23.1% over the twelve months to Q3 2026, while revenue grew 7.9%. The operating margin widened 5.6 percentage points over the same stretch, reaching 20.7%. More of each extra dollar of revenue reached the bottom line.
Cash flow moved in the same direction. Operating cash flow rose 12.7% to $5.4 billion, and free cash flow rose 12.3% to $4.6 billion. The free-cash-flow margin reached 17.4% of revenue, up 0.7 percentage points from a year earlier.
Growth itself is decelerating. The trailing-twelve-month revenue growth rate of 7.9% is down 0.6 percentage points from the rate a quarter earlier. That tempers the margin story: the expansion is real, but the revenue engine behind it is slowing.
The company announced its third-quarter operating results on 29 October 2026. Reports say what Stryker said on the earnings call connects with the profit-outgrowing-sales figures above, and that the negative tone on underperformance was unexpected to analysts.
Where Stryker's figures sit in its own record
Both are at high levels in the company's history.
The margin expansion is occurring while growth sits well below the top of that range.
What Stryker's share price implies against our model
In our model, growth 5 percentage points lower would lower the value by 27.6%, and growth 5 percentage points higher would raise it by 35.9%. A free-cash-flow margin 1 percentage point lower would lower it by 5.8%. The model is far more sensitive to growth than to margin, which means the deceleration in the revenue rate matters more to the valuation than the margin expansion does.
What the filings cannot tell you at Stryker
Our figures run to Q3 2026, from the company's own filings; they cannot confirm, explain or rule out anything in the reports. The operating margin and net income growth bear directly on the profit-outgrowing-sales point that reports connect to the earnings call, but the guidance cut cited in reports is not visible in these trailing figures.