Philips Partners With NYMC To Boost Healthcare Portfolio

Koninklijke Philips NV (NYSE:PHG) recently strengthened its collaboration with premier academic institution, New York Medical College (NYMC), for co-creation of its digitally advanced oncology genomics solution, Philips IntelliSpace. Forging partnerships with leading medical institutions has been one of the strategies of this Dutch technology company to enhance its healthcare portfolio.

Joining Forces with Healthcare Institutions

The partnership with NYMC will enable Philips to access the former’s new biotechnology incubator – BioIncNYMC – which is an integral part of both the Westchester and the greater New York’s innovation ecosystem. Further, it will provide opportunities for Philips to work on advanced large-scale genomic analysis. Sharing NYMC’s campus will also aid Philips in collaborating with other innovation partners and their three affiliated teaching hospitals on the Valhalla, NY campus.

Touted as a scalable and secure healthcare informatics solution, Philips’ IntelliSpace Genomics can deliver real time, actionable diagnostic information to health personnel for therapy planning. It also offers state-of-the-art clinical expertise and algorithmic power in integrated workflows that can help clinicians to improve their service.

Of late, Philips has undertaken numerous initiatives and investments in R&D to expand its healthcare business, which is gaining rapid momentum and has emerged as one of the company’s primary growth drivers. Some of the recent collaborations of the company include entering into a five-year interventional cardiology solutions agreement with DeltaHealth in China, inking a three-year patient monitoring solutions agreement with Chicago-based Rush University Medical Center and joining forces with Elekta to develop MR-guided radiation therapy delivery.

The most recent development of IntelliSpace Genomics is definitely another of Philips’ milestones in advancing personalized cancer care.

Healthcare Markets Losing Steam

Near-term profitability of Philips’ healthcare segment in key end markets is likely to hamper its growth. Cuts to public spending budgets in Europe andanti-corruption initiatives, slow GDP growth and centralized tendering in China are likely to mar the Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company’s healthcare markets. Overall, the global healthcare market growth is anticipated to be in the flat-to-low single-digit range for 2016. In addition, intense competition from biggies like General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) and Siemens Aktiengesellschaft (OTC:SIEGY) add to the company’s woes.

Over the past six months, Philips’ shares recorded an average return of 8.7%, slightly below the Zacks categorized Electronic Product Misc industry average of 11.2%. Moreover, analysts have become increasingly bearish on the stock over the past couple of months, with estimate revisions moving south. With two downward revisions compared with no upward revision in the past two months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2016 earnings has declined from $1.63 to $1.59.

A better-ranked stock in the industry includes VOXX International Corporation (NASDAQ:VOXX) . The Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) company has a decent earnings surprise history, beating estimates thrice in the trailing four quarters, and boasts a whopping average positive surprise of 251.7%. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

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