Penumbra (PEN) Forms JV On Virtual Reality In Health Space

Penumbra, Inc. (NYSE:PEN) has recently made a major investment in the field of healthcare applications through virtual reality technology. The company has partnered with Sixense Entierprises to form a joint venture (JV) called MVI Health Inc.

Sixense Entierprises is a leading provider of VR/AR (Virtual and augmented reality) enterprise solutions. The company with its full-presence platform delivers a more natural and intuitive way to interact in the virtual world.

MVI Health is expected to bring together Sixense Enterprises’ unique immersive computing platform in virtual reality technology with Penumbra’s focus on developing and commercializing advanced medical therapies. This combination indicates to form a leading digital health platform in MVI Health.

MVI Health will be headquartered in Alameda with the support of Penumbra’s investments and contributions drawn from license, intellectual property plus other resources of Sixense Enterprises. However, financial terms of the deal have been kept under wraps.

Notably, Penumbra continues to demonstrate a strong momentum in its overall business, courtesy of its consistent investment in cutting-edge product innovations. We also remain encouraged about the company’s long-term prospects and its strategic positioning within both its major markets namely, neuro and peripheral vascular.

Last quarter, the company saw a continued strength in neuro, driven by ischemic stroke procedural volumes. While in peripheral vascular franchise, the company is making strong inroads, both in embolization and thrombectomy businesses.

Share Price Performance

Over the past three months, the company’s share price has underperformed the broader industry. The stock has declined 2.1% as compared to the 7.8% gain of the broader industry. However, with the positive developments we expect Penumbra to gradually gain investor confidence.

Zacks Rank and Key Picks

Penumbra carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks from the broader medical space are Akari Therapeutics PLC. (NASDAQ:AKTX) , Protagonist Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:PTGX) and Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (NASDAQ:WBA) . While Akari and Protagonist sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Walgreens carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Akari has a projected growth rate of 88.89% for the next quarter. The earnings surprises delivered by the company have been positive in the last three quarters with an average beat of 88.6%.

Protagonist has an expected earnings growth rate of 36.9% in 2017. The stock has surged an impressive 80.6% in the last six months.

Walgreens Boots has a long-term expected earnings growth rate of 10.1%. The stock has risen 3.2% year to date.

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