Report date: Wednesday, August 5, 2026, before market open (release ~6:30 a.m. ET; call at 8:30 a.m. ET)
ZBH shares have been volatile in 2026 — falling from the mid-$90s in April to a 12-month low near $79 in May (post-Q1 CFO news and guidance caution) before rallying back to the mid-$90s heading into this report. The share price has picked up in the very short term, with a 1-day share price return of 1.27% and a 7-day gain of 5.18%, though this follows a 30-day share price return down 11.69% earlier in the cycle. Over the trailing year, ZBH's stock has declined by almost 4% while the S&P 500 has increased 19.1%, meaning the stock has underperformed the broader market, and it has also underperformed the healthcare sector, with the XLV up 22.2% over the past 52 weeks.
Sell-side sentiment is split and mixed heading in: the stock carries roughly a "Hold" consensus with one Strong Buy, eight Buy, twelve Hold and four Sell ratings, and an average target price of $102.00, though price targets have diverged sharply — from Goldman Sachs' Sell/$93 to UBS initiating at Buy with a more bullish view, alongside recent cuts from Citigroup ($95→$93), Truist ($98→$92) and Wells Fargo ($98→$90).
Zimmer Biomet's Q1 print (reported April 28) was strong on the surface: net sales of $2.087 billion, up 9.3% reported / 2.9% organic constant currency, with adjusted EPS of $2.09 (+15.5% YoY), beating consensus by a wide margin. However, the quarter came with two notable overhangs that will carry into Q2:
Key operational threads from Q1 that investors will be tracking for continuation in Q2: - U.S. sales force transformation: the 1099/independent-distributor mix fell from ~66% to just below 60% of the U.S. force, with specialized/dedicated reps rising from ~25% toward 30%, and management reporting rapid productivity gains and low turnover in transitioned territories. - Knees softness: U.S. knee growth was just 2.2%, pressured by the intentional phase-out of legacy NexGen/Vanguard implants and the loss of two large accounts, partly offset by >20% growth in the Oxford Partial Cementless Knee. - International deceleration: OUS growth of 2.5% trailed the U.S. for the first time in a while, driven by tough comps, distributor-network consolidation in emerging markets/China, and one-time order timing — management guided to a mid-single-digit international recovery in H2. - Tariff tailwind: Q1 benefited from a $0.20 EPS tailwind tied to IEEPA tariff invalidation, about half of which was a pull-forward of refunds originally expected in H2 2026 — meaning less cushion should be available going forward, and Section 232 tariff risk remains a live, unresolved variable. - Margin cadence guide: Management explicitly guided operating margins for Q2 2026 to be down approximately 200 basis points year-over-year due to the timing of commercial investments and acquisition dilution, with Q3 margins expected to improve roughly 50bps sequentially from Q2. This is one of the most important explicit guideposts for tomorrow's print — a miss or beat relative to "down ~200bps" will be closely parsed.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company's second-quarter revenues is pegged at $2.13 billion, indicating a 2.5% increase from the year-ago reported figure, while the consensus estimate for second-quarter earnings stands at $2.01 per share, suggesting a 2.9% decline year over year. That EPS estimate has remained unchanged over the past 60 days, suggesting limited pre-print estimate revisions. Notably, Zimmer Biomet currently carries a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) with an Earnings ESP of 0.00% — a signal model that doesn't point to a clear beat setup this quarter, a contrast to the company's recent track record: in the last reported quarter the company posted adjusted EPS of $2.09, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 12.37%, and Zimmer Biomet topped earnings estimates in each of the past four quarters, delivering an average surprise of 4.92%.
By segment, consensus expects: total Knees revenues to improve 1.9% year over year and total Hips revenues to grow 1.7% year over year. Growth drivers analysts are watching for include continued strong demand for the Oxford Partial Cementless Knee, which remains the only partial cementless knee on the market, traction from the U.S. hip triple-play of the Z1 Femoral Hip Stem, OrthoGrid AI navigation platform and HAMMR surgical impactor, and early adoption of the company's iodine-coated hip implant in Japan, designed to reduce periprosthetic joint infection risk. Full-year 2026 consensus sits around $8.48 in EPS (+3.4% YoY), followed by $8.92 (+5.2%) in fiscal 2027 — broadly in line with the company's own $8.40–$8.55 guidance range.
For context on peer read-throughs into the medtech print season, CONMED posted flat year-on-year revenue (beating by 1.8%) and Baxter reported revenue up 5.3% (topping estimates by 6%), with both stocks trading up after results — a generally constructive backdrop for the sector, though it also raised the bar somewhat for ZBH.
Zimmer Biomet enters this print as a "show-me" story: strong Q1 headline numbers were overshadowed by cautious guidance, a surprise CFO departure, and explicit margin-compression commentary for Q2. Consensus embeds a revenue beat-friendly setup (steady ~2.5% growth) but a lower EPS print than a year ago (-2.9%), reflecting tougher margin comps and the fading tariff tailwind — a mixed signal that has kept the sell-side rating stuck at "Hold" with wide dispersion in price targets ($90–$125+). The stock's recent rally into the print raises the bar for a positive reaction; a confirmation of margin trajectory, upgraded (or at least reaffirmed with confident tone) full-year guidance, and evidence that the U.S. sales-force transformation is translating into accelerating knee/hip growth will likely be the difference between the market treating this as validation of the turnaround thesis versus renewed skepticism about "another year of transition."