The company reports with a low consensus bar, record earnings and a question Wall Street has yet to answer: why does the stock still trade at a discount?
On Thursday, November 5, after the market close, Globus Medical (NYSE: GMED) will release its third-quarter 2026 results. On paper, it is just another earnings report. In practice, it could be much more than that: another chance to win over a market that, quarter after quarter, has been reluctant to pay what the numbers suggest the company is worth.
Michael Butler, founder and former chief executive of Life Spine, a company that once faced Globus in court, and now managing partner at KinetiX Group, recently made this case in an article on LinkedIn. Coming from a former competitor, his praise carries particular weight. In his view, the market is undervaluing not just Globus itself but something harder to measure: the discipline of its management team, its corporate culture and its ability to execute.
Butler backs his argument with numbers that are hard to dispute. The company generates a lot of cash, posts solid operating margins and has integrated acquisitions with a skill few rivals in the industry can match. The balance sheet supports the case too. At the end of June, Globus held $840 million in cash and marketable securities and carried no debt, having repaid its convertible notes in 2025. November 5 will show whether all of that is still showing up in the results.
A Bar That Looks Low
Analysts expect revenue of about $792 million and adjusted earnings of $1.20 per share. Compared with the same quarter of 2025 ($769 million and $1.18), that would mean modest growth, with sales up only about 3%.
What stands out is the comparison with the previous quarter. Between April and June, Globus reported revenue of $789.6 million and adjusted earnings of $1.34 per share, nearly 20% above what analysts had expected. It also raised its full-year adjusted EPS guidance to a range of $4.95 to $5.05, up from $4.70 to $4.80.
In other words, the market expects Globus to earn less per share in the third quarter than it did in the second. Management itself planted some of that caution. In August, it urged prudence for the second half of the year for three reasons: the business model transition in its enabling technologies unit, the ongoing recovery at Nevro and tougher comparisons in spine. Against that backdrop, beating estimates is almost expected. What could really move the stock is in the details.
Five Things to Watch
1. US Spine, the barometer of the business. US spine revenue grew 7% in the second quarter, the fifth straight quarter of above-market growth. Keeping up that pace against tougher comparisons would be the clearest sign that Globus is still taking share from competitors. In the second quarter, the company also doubled its hiring of sales reps from rivals compared with the first quarter. Now those hires need to translate into sales.
2. Margins: how much room is left? The NuVasive integration proved that Globus knows how to wring out efficiencies. The open question is whether it can keep expanding margins without cutting the investment it needs to grow in the years ahead.
3. Free cash flow, the number that matters most. This may well be the most important figure of the night. Globus generated $176.6 million in free cash flow in the second quarter, up from $31.3 million a year earlier. The bar for this quarter is high: in the third quarter of 2025, the company produced $213.9 million, a record for that period. Investors want confirmation that its ability to turn earnings into cash is structural rather than the product of one-off factors.
4. Nevro and robotics. Nevro’s adjusted EBITDA margin has gone from negative a year ago to 22.4% in the second quarter, but its sales are still declining. Investors will be looking for signs that a commercial recovery is starting. They will also want to see the equipment business, led by robotics and navigation, move past its transition. Its sales fell 26% in the second quarter.
5. What management says about 2027. The tone will matter more than the quarter itself. Consensus points to adjusted earnings of about $5.40 per share next year on revenue of roughly $3.39 billion. Any hint about whether management is comfortable with those numbers, or thinks they are too low, could carry more weight than the results.
Is the Discount Justified?
Butler argues that Globus trades at a significant discount to companies such as Stryker, Medtronic and Edwards Lifesciences despite its financial strength. With the stock at around $76 in mid-October, Globus trades at roughly 14 times the earnings analysts expect for 2027.
Part of that gap can be explained. Globus is more dependent on a single business, spine, and its growth and risk profile differs from that of the industry’s large diversified groups. It also still has unresolved issues, such as Nevro. But if it keeps gaining share, expanding margins and generating cash at its current pace, the discount will become increasingly hard to defend.
Matching its rivals may not even be the goal. What Globus needs to show is that its results are sustainable. If it does, the debate will shift from why the stock trades at a discount to whether it deserves a premium.
What’s at Stake
Beating estimates on November 5 will not be enough on its own. The market needs to see Globus turn its operating discipline into growth, profitability and cash, consistently, quarter after quarter.
The appeal of Globus lies less in what it earns today than in what it could generate over the next decade. November 5 will offer one more clue as to whether that story holds up.
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