Getinge (GETI-B): the quiet sterilizer of hospitals

2026-07-06 · By Lubin Danilo, founder of Lubin Investment

GETI-B.ST: see the full analysis on Lubin Investment

Getinge is a Swedish group that equips hospitals with sterilization machines, operating room equipment and intensive care devices. It passes 9 of my 10 quality criteria, with solid capital returns and manageable debt. But at the current price, the stock trades about 33% above what I consider a reasonable entry point. A good business, not yet at the right price.

• Getinge equips hospitals with sterilizers, operating room gear and intensive care equipment: an essential, unglamorous business that is very hard to displace once installed.
• 9 of 10 quality criteria passed: 17.6% return on invested capital, debt payable in under 3 years of cash, earnings converting cleanly into real cash.
• Weak spot: revenue growth has slowed to 7.3% a year, below my 10% threshold.
• The stock trades at 20 times its free cash flow, but my model calculates a reasonable buy price of $129.64 against a current price of $194.35, roughly a 33% premium.

What Getinge actually does

When a surgeon opens a patient, every instrument touching them must be 100% sterile. That is Getinge's business: building the machines that clean and sterilize surgical instruments, equipping operating rooms, and supplying intensive care devices such as ventilators and cardiac assist equipment. The Swedish group sells this in over 100 countries, with an installed base inside hospitals that almost never switch suppliers once the equipment is in place.

That last point is the key. A sterilizer gets installed for fifteen or twenty years. Staff are trained on it, hospital protocols are built around it, and health authorities have validated the whole setup. Switching supplier means redoing that validation, retraining staff, and taking a risk on a process where mistakes are not an option. As a result, once a hospital picks Getinge, it also keeps buying spare parts and sterilization chemicals for years. That is recurring, predictable revenue layered on top of the machine sale itself.

Quality, criterion by criterion

My method judges a company on 10 financial criteria, independent of its price. Getinge passes 9 of them. Cash return on invested capital (how much cash the business generates for every euro reinvested in the operation) reaches 17.6%, well above my 15% bar. Net debt sits under 3 years of free cash flow, a level I consider manageable. And its accounting earnings convert cleanly into real cash (117% conversion), a sign that reported profitability is not inflated by accounting tricks.

The weak spot is growth: revenue has grown 7.3% a year over five years, below my 10% threshold. A group selling heavy equipment to public hospitals, often on tight budgets, will not grow like a software company. That is the trade-off of a defensive sector: less growth, but demand that never disappears, because hospitals always need to sterilize their instruments, recession or not.

The American rival, and why Getinge is different

The name that keeps coming up in this business is US-based STERIS, already rated 10 out of 10 in my screener. The difference: STERIS mostly dominates the US hospital market, while Getinge has historically been stronger in Europe and emerging markets. Both sell similar equipment, but Getinge is the first non-US medical device company I have covered in depth on this site. For an investor who wants exposure to this business without concentrating all the risk on the US, it is an alternative worth knowing.

Quality does not mean a good price

This is where I separate the two questions almost everyone confuses. Getinge is a good business, the numbers confirm that. But is now the right time to look at it? To answer that, I calculate a reasonable buy price from the past growth of its free cash flow per share and a conservative exit multiple. For Getinge, that comes out to $129.64. The current price is $194.35. The stock is therefore trading about 33% above what I am willing to pay.

A price-to-free-cash-flow of 20 times (the stock price divided by the cash generated each year) is not extravagant on its own, it is even reasonable for quality medtech. The issue is not today's multiple, it is that my model, which projects the cash trajectory over 5 years, judges that the market already prices in much of what comes next. In other words, the quality is real, but it is already largely recognized in the share price. This is not a forgotten gem, it is a good business to watch, not to buy blindly today.

How I make the call

I do not try to guess whether the stock goes up or down tomorrow. I set a price and wait for it to come to me. On Getinge, that price is $129.64, about a third below the current level. Until then, I prefer to watch: whether revenue growth picks back up, whether margins keep expanding, and wait for a disappointing quarter or a market pullback to bring the price closer to that level. This exact calculation, quality and price judged separately, is what I wanted to be able to do for any stock in seconds, which is why I built my investment site.

FAQ

What does Getinge make exactly?

Sterilization machines for hospitals, operating room equipment, and intensive care devices (ventilators, cardiac assist). A B2B business invisible to the public but essential to hospital operations.

Is Getinge rated 10 out of 10 like STERIS?

No, Getinge scores 9 out of 10 in my method. The missing point: revenue growth, at 7.3% a year over five years, stays below my 10% threshold.

Is the stock expensive today?

It trades at 20 times its free cash flow, which is reasonable for medtech. But my valuation model puts a fair buy price around $129.64, against a $194.35 current price, roughly a 33% premium above my entry point.

Does Getinge pay a dividend?

The Swedish group has a history of returning part of its profits to shareholders, like many mature industrial companies. Check the current yield on my analysis page, which updates with market data.

How is it different from STERIS?

Both sell hospital sterilization equipment. STERIS is stronger in the US market, Getinge has historically been more present in Europe and emerging markets. STERIS scores 10 out of 10 in my screener, versus 9 for Getinge.

GETI-B.ST: see the full analysis on Lubin Investment

About the author

Written by Lubin Danilo, founder of Lubin Investment. A self-taught individual investor, I find fundamental analysis fascinating, and it has delivered excellent results. For three years now, my performance has beaten the S&P 500. But analyzing every stock took too much time: sites with incomplete data, calculation methods and criteria never aligned with mine. And spotting the best stocks was just as time-consuming, even with my own well-defined checklist. So I put my software development background to work to build this software, base my investment strategy on its results, and share it with people who share the same passion as me. It judges a company's quality and its price separately, using criteria drawn from the financial literature (Warren Buffett, Michael Mauboussin, Aswath Damodaran).