Last week’s answer

Founded in 1920, I’m one of America’s largest poultry producers and meat processors, generating more than $2.7 billion in sales annually. I produce about 48 million pounds of chicken products and 4 million pounds of turkey products weekly. My birds are raised by almost 3,000 independent farm-family partners. My founder’s name is my name, and his son made it famous when he became the company spokesman. I was the first poultry company to include nutritional information on my labels. Privately owned, Forbes rated me as one of the 100 largest family-owned businesses. Who am I? (Answer: Perdue Farms)

Medtronic keeps beating

The world’s leading medical technology company, Medtronic (NYSE: MDT), recently reported second-quarter sales and profits up 14 percent. In business after business, Medtronic is not just growing, it is stealing market share from competitors.

Its Cardiac and Spinal businesses, which account for 60 percent of sales, upped revenue by 25 percent. And 75 percent of those sales were for products introduced in the past 2 years.

Another potential growth driver is the drug-coated coronary stent nearing completion of clinical trials. Consider that Johnson & Johnson’s drug-coated Cypher stent logged U.S. sales of $429 million last quarter, while Medtronic’s entire Vascular Business turned in just $192 million.

Medtronic is a money machine. Gross profit margins were a strong 75.1 percent, with net profit margins topping 20 percent. Medtronic has treated investors to nine straight quarters of double-digit earnings and revenue growth.

Management’s five-year goal is 15 percent compounded growth in annual revenue and earnings. It’s wrapping up a 25 million-share repurchase and announced a new 30 million-share buyback plan. The company might consider better using its cash to reduce its $2.4 billion of total debt and make acquisitions that both add to earnings and meet the 15 percent compounded annual growth goal.

On the balance, Medtronic offers investors consistent growth, and at today’s prices, the stock is reasonably, though not inexpensively, valued.