Medtronic Buys Digital Surgery, Boosts AI-Focus Surgical Care

Medtronic plc (NYSE:MDT) recently acquired privately-held Digital Surgery, in order to strengthen the company’s position in the growing field of surgical AI. London-based Digital Surgery, apart from working on surgical AI, also focuses on data and analytics, digital education and training. Financial terms of the deal have been kept under wraps.

Is the Deal a Strategic Fit?

Post the deal’s completion, Medtronic aims to pair Digital Surgery solutions with the company’s existing robotic platforms and instrumentation. Medtronic believes this upgradation will lead to the development of high-quality surgical care, in turn, enhancing patient admission.

Further, its advanced data and analytics solutions will help Medtronic progress in minimally-invasive surgery, in areas starting from education and training, clinical decision support, to even minimization of costs and unwarranted variability.

Digital Surgery’s businesses will be integrated within Medtronic’s Surgical Robotics business — a part of its Minimally Invasive Therapies Group.

While the acquisition is unlikely to impact Medtronic’s fiscal 2020 adjusted earnings per share, it is anticipated to meet the company’s long-term financial targets.

Medtronic in Robotic Assisted Surgery So Far

In a bid to grow in the field of robotics spine surgery, Medtronic had earlier acquired Mazor Robotics, an Israel-based robotic surgical guidance systems company. The buyout has combined Medtronic's market-leading spine implants, navigation and intra-operative imaging technology with Mazor’s robotic-assisted surgery (RAS) systems. On this, Medtronic recently launched the Mazor X Stealth Edition robotics guidance platform and has already received positive feedback for this capability.

The latest purchase of Digital Surgery will, undoubtedly, boost Medtronic’s surgical AI capabilities to a great extent.

Share Price Performance

Shares of Medtronic have gained 27.2% in the past year compared with the industry’s 10.2% rally.

Zacks Rank & Other Stocks to Consider

Currently, Medtronic carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Hold).

Some other top-ranked stocks from the broader medical space are Phibro Animal Health Corporation (NASDAQ:PAHC) , Hill-Rom Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:HRC) and ResMed Inc. (NYSE:RMD) .

Phibro currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and has a projected long-term earnings growth rate of 3.6%. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Hill-Rom’s has an estimated long-term earnings growth rate of 11.1%. The company carries a Zacks Rank of 2, at present.

ResMed’s has an expected long-term earnings growth rate of 12%. It currently flaunts a Zacks Rank #1.

Breakout Biotech Stocks with Triple-Digit Profit Potential

The biotech sector is projected to surge beyond $775 billion by 2024 as scientists develop treatments for thousands of diseases. They’re also finding ways to edit the human genome to literally erase our vulnerability to these diseases.

Zacks has just released Century of Biology: 7 Biotech Stocks to Buy Right Now to help investors profit from 7 stocks poised for outperformance. Our recent biotech recommendations have produced gains of +50%, +83% and +164% in as little as 2 months. The stocks in this report could perform even better.

See these 7 breakthrough stocks now>>