Industry background: ResMed is a dual-listed medical device and software company. It helps treat sleep-disordered breathing and other respiratory illnesses such as asthma and is present in more than 140 countries. It has steadily expanded its software as a service (SaaS) unit and plans to leverage big data, such as its 6.5 billion nights of sleep and medical data and 14 million patients enrolled in its AirView software solution. It believes the future of medicine is out of hospitals and in the home. Its main competitors are GE, Philips, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare and Avinger.

The result: In the fourth quarter, sales of ventilators surged because of global demand as COVID-19 spread. From the start of this year, the company made more than 150,000 ventilators, which is 3.5 times normal production, leading to double-digit growth in sales and profits over fiscal 2020. Ventilator sales in the fourth quarter reached $125 million, helping offset a significant double-digit decline in new diagnoses of obstructive sleep apnoea (ResMed's core business).