Share price as of Tuesday's close:

$26.75

Share price now:

$29.52

Change:

10%

Volume:

557,400 shares, daily average 80,800 shares

Last time this high:

Nov. 6, 2001

52-week high:

$33.38

52-week low:

$17.26

Forward P/E before announcement:

39.3

Forward P/E after announcement:

43.2

WILSON GREATBATCH TECHNOLOGIES knows a thing or two about the heart. The Clarence, N.Y., company is named after the man who invented the world's first internal cardiac pacemaker. It's one of the largest suppliers of batteries and other electrical equipment for such devices.

But it was Wilson Greatbatch's biggest customer that really set investors' hearts aflutter Wednesday. Guidant, among the world's top makers of pacemakers and other cardiovascular lifesavers and Wilson Greatbatch's biggest customer, said the trial of its new implantable defibrillator had been halted weeks early, after the device dramatically improved survival rates of heart-attack patients when compared with normal drug treatments. Furthermore, Guidant said the market for these defibrillators, which can help prevent sudden cardiac death in patients with weakened hearts, could potentially double.

That came as a cause for celebration to Wilson Greatbatch's investors, who lifted the stock 10% to $29.52. (Wilson Greatbatch provides batteries and capacitors used in Guidant's devices.) The news also came as a welcome positive for a company that just last week announced that it was beginning the search for a new numbers man after the resignation of its chief financial officer for personal reasons. That news sent the stock down 10% a palpitation that Wednesday's jolt more than made up for.

Quote
Wilson Greatbatch "is expected to derive roughly 30% of its revenue in fiscal 2002 from ICD [implantable cardiovascular device] batteries and capacitors. Thus, any improvement in outlook for the...market is a positive for GB," wrote U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray analyst Archie Smith in a Wednesday research note reiterating his Strong Buy rating.