MDLN News & Events

William Blair analyst Brandon Vazquez says Medline shares are lower on news of a fire at a distribution center in Tracy, California. The 1M square-foot facility represents 4% of the company's warehouse space in the U.S. and 3% globally, the analyst tells investors in a research note. Blair believes Medline will spend to make sure customer orders are fulfilled. As such, the company's margins could see some impact in the short term, the firm adds. However, it expects the impact on the stock to be "manageable over the medium term since Medline's scale will allow it to continue to fulfill customer orders." Blair keeps an Outperform rating on Medline, which is down 4% to $35.47 in early trading.

Leerink analyst Michael Cherny notes that yesterday afternoon, a fire broke out at Medline's Tracy, CA 1 million sq. ft. distribution facility, completely engulfing the building. No injuries were reported, and local authorities are still working to assess the situation. At this point, Leerink does not know precisely what to make of the fire, but recognizes that at a minimum this has taken a distribution facility offline for Medline. This means that the company is evaluating contingency plans to maintain customer order fulfillment, which could cause some short-term disruption in product availability and fill rates. The firm would expect some short-term financial impact as noted, even if the company's likely redundancy plans can mitigate short-term disruption. Long-term, Leerink does not think this in any way changes Medline's opportunity. The firm maintains an Outperform rating on the stock.