Philips' (PHG) IntelliVue Guardian Enhances Patient Outcomes

Koninklijke Philips N.V. (NYSE:PHG) recently announced that Saratoga Hospital has successfully improved patient safety and clinical outcomes by integrating Philips IntelliVue Guardian with automated Early Warning Scoring (EWS) system. IntelliVue Guardian solution provides better insights to clinicians and helps them to take better decisions, thus improving patient outcomes along with enhancing workflow.

Leveraging Saratoga Hospital’s modified early warning score (MEWS) algorithm, the IntelliVue Guardian Solution enables clinicians to discover deviations in a patient's vital signs. The solution also incorporates an automated respiration rate into its EWS calculations that improves quality and accuracy. The implementation of Philips’ patient monitoring technology has enabled Saratoga Hospital to reduce patient transfers to the intensive care unit (ICU) as well as eliminate patient codes within its 20-bed orthopedic unit.

Our Take

Philips is gradually evolving as a healthcare company, having grown its presence in the domain over the past couple of quarters. Also, the Healthcare Informatics Solutions & Services margins are improving constantly as the company is transforming this business from a hardware-oriented to a software-driven business.

In addition, Philips remains optimistic about the prospects of its Diagnosis & Treatment vertical owing to positive industry trends as Image-Guided Therapy and Ultrasound equipment sales are acting as major profit churners. In the past three months, this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock has gained 2% against the industry’s loss of 1.3%.

Moreover, the company is focusing on key opportunities in population health management. This apart, Philips is improving its enterprise wide solutions for health systems and collaborating with health care organizations to enhance its stronghold in the healthcare industry. Meanwhile, the company’s eye on strategic acquisitions and alliances has bolstered its core business. For instance, the buyout of health technology behemoth — CardioProlific — has strengthened the company’s pipeline of catheter-based therapy devices. Along with CardioProlific, Spectranetics and TomTec are also likely to be conducive to Philips’ image-guided therapy portfolio.

However, Philips’ near-term profitability is expected to be hurt by sluggish growth prospects of the healthcare market on a global scale. Also, the company’s diverse international presence exposes it to macroeconomic uncertainties and geopolitical tension. Furthermore, currency headwinds have hurt its financials over the past few quarters and might continue doing so in the quarters ahead.

Key Picks

Some better-ranked stocks from the same space are Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) , Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) and Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU) . While Lam Research sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Cisco Systems and Intuit carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Lam Research has surpassed estimates in the trailing four quarters, with an average positive earnings surprise of 9.2%.

Cisco Systems has outpaced estimates thrice in the preceding four quarters, with an average earnings surprise of 3%.

Intuit has surpassed estimates in the preceding four quarters, with an average positive earnings surprise of 37.2%.

The Hottest Tech Mega-Trend of All

Last year, it generated $8 billion in global revenues. By 2020, it's predicted to blast through the roof to $47 billion. Famed investor Mark Cuban says it will produce "the world's first trillionaires," but that should still leave plenty of money for regular investors who make the right trades early.

See Zacks' 3 Best Stocks to Play This Trend >>