Philips' New Digital Health Solutions Expand Portfolio

Philips (NYSE:PHG) recently announced the expansion of its personalized digital health solutions portfolio at CES 2020.

The company is expanding its collaboration with Delta Dental of California and its affiliates to roll out the next phase of the BrushSmart program. The program is designed to connect brushing behaviors with professional dental care to drive improvements in oral health and overall wellness.

Users of the program will benefit from exclusive oral care product and service offerings, including the Philips Sonicare ExpertClean toothbrush and free brush heads. Moreover, Philips and Delta Dental will be able to create data-driven insights and personalized solutions that address the needs of each member.

The company also released the Baby+ app, which is designed to provide parents with a dedicated tool to track their baby’s growth and receive regular advice specific to each stage of development.

The app can also track multiple babies in the same family and allows parents to capture and share their baby’s growth with other family members using the app’s face-a-day function. It is currently free to download from Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Play and the Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) App Store.

Additionally, the company showcased Lumify, an app based portable ultra sound, which brings diagnostic capabilities to compatible smartphone devices.

Moreover, Philips introduced the SmartSleep Deep Sleep Headband 2, the latest evolution in its SmartSleep suite of solutions. The band was developed using consumer sleep data, ongoing research alongside sleep physicians and feedback from early adopters.

Its features include the New Fall Asleep Sounds that help soothe the wearer to sleep and SmartAlarm that helps wake the wearer in their lightest stage of sleep within approximately 5-30 minutes of their desired wake time.

Philips will also introduce its Snoring Relief Band solution for reducing positional back snoring, its Better Sleep Program for re-training a user’s sleep habits to help them fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer and Connected Sleep and Wake-up Light, which enables users to control key aspects of their sleeping and waking experiences with the SleepMapper app.

New Solutions to Strengthen Portfolio

These solutions are part of Philips’ ongoing focus on innovation, which is strengthening its healthcare offerings. These are likely to aid the company in meeting increasing demand for smart healthcare solutions from the new generation of health-conscious consumers.

Notably, the company has been investing in research & development (R&D) across all its segments in the recent past. In the first nine months of 2019, Philips’ R&D expenses increased 5.2% year over year to €1.33 billion.

Although increasing tariffs related to the U.S.-China trade are expected to hurt growth, Philips expects fourth-quarter profitability to improve driven by improved performance of the Diagnosis & Treatment and Personal Health businesses and a gradual recovery in Connected Care.

Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

Philips currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked stocks in the broader technology sector include Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) , Garmin Ltd (NASDAQ:GRMN) and Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) . All three stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

The long-term earnings growth rate for Baidu, Garmin and Applied Materials is currently pegged at 2.3%, 7.4% and 8.2%, respectively.

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