Philips Continues Acquisition Spree, Buys CardioProlific

Koninklijke Philips N.V. (NYSE:PHG) has been exceptionally active in the acquisition space, of late. After announcing the acquisition of Spectranetics Corporation (NASDAQ:SPNC) earlier this week, the health technology behemoth has now acquired CardioProlific Inc. as it seeks to fortify its image-guided therapy devices portfolio.

Philips has morphed from a lighting company into a healthcare technology provider over the last couple of years, and it is leveraging bolt-on acquisitions to expand its footprint in the space. The CardioProlific buyout marks the company’s sixth acquisition this year. The company earlier announced deals to acquire Spectranetics Corporation, Electrical Geodesics, Respiratory Technologies, Respiratory Technologies, Inc. and Australian Pharmacy Sleep Services.

The company’s Diagnosis & Treatment revenues have been encouraging in recent times, and these accretive acquisitions should lend solid momentum to the unit’s growth in the quarter to come. Also, Philips’ transformation from a hardware-oriented to a software-driven business, which is a higher-margin, recurring-revenue model, sits well with the investors.

This is reflected in the company’s stock movement in the recent past. Shares of the company have gained 16.9% in the last six months, outperforming the Zacks categorized Electronics Products-Miscellaneous industry’s average gain of 11.3%.

The most recent acquisition, CardioProlific, is developing catheter-based thrombectomy approaches for the treatment of peripheral vascular disease. Hence, its technologies complement the portfolios of Philips’ portfolio of image-guided therapy devices, as well as Spectranetrics. CardioProlific’s differentiated thrombectomy technologies will serve to strengthen Philips’ pipeline of catheter-based therapy devices.

Philips’ recent buyouts will fortify its foothold in the image-guided therapy market, which is valued at over €6 billion. The company presently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked stocks in the broader sector include Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) and Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAOI) , both sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

With four back-to-back beats, Applied Materials has an average positive surprise of 3.4% for the trailing four quarters.

Applied Optoelectronics has a whopping average earnings surprise of 118.3% for the trailing four quarters, with three back-to-back beats.

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