Medtronic plc. (MDT)

Medtronic makes medical devices and nothing else, across a wider range than anyone: pacemakers, neuromodulation, surgery, diabetes.

The portfolio is the industry's broadest, which is both a strength and a weakness. The strength is resilience: weakness in one line is offset by others, and hospital relationships span many purchases at once. The weakness is pace: a large company grows more slowly than a specialist competitor in a single niche.

The lines investors watch most are pulsed-field treatment of cardiac rhythm disorders and continuous glucose monitoring with a pump. In both the company is catching up with competitors who arrived earlier, and the speed of that catch-up governs the market's view.

Revenue follows procedure volume and therefore hospital throughput. Regulatory requirements for devices are strict, and a batch recall is expensive and damaging — such cases exist in the company's history. Medtronic pays a dividend with a very long record of increases.