St. Jude Medical: +9%

St. Jude Medical: +9% 

St. Jude Medical has seen its stock increase steadily this year, recently rising 5% to $72.80 last Thursday morning, after a rumor that Abbott Laboratories was planning on bidding to acquire the firm, which Abbott denied.  

The company is increasing the size of its cardiovascular tech footprint. It recently acquired CardioMEMS (device shown above), and is close to closing a $3.4 billion acquisition of LVAD maker Thoratec. 

S&P had upgraded St. Jude's credit in late June to stable from negative, but in late July, it put the company's credit rating on CreditWatch Negative based on the then planned acquisition of Thoratec.