Walgreens (WBA), Village MD Plan to Expand Into San Antonio

Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA), Inc. WBA and Village MD recently announced plans to open nine Village Medical at Walgreens primary care practices in San Antonio over the next year. These openings represent expansion into the fifth major market in Texas, following Houston, El Paso, Austin and Dallas.

It is worth noting that the Village Medical at Walgreens locations in San Antonio will employ 380 well-compensated STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) professionals. This is expected to create more than 850 full-time jobs within the area.

Enhanced Accessibility to Primary Care

Through the Walgreens and VillageMD coordinated care model, patients get full-service primary care besides convenient and cost-effective pharmacy services. This coordinated care model is mainly beneficial for San Antonio residents, particularly patients with chronic conditions who require increased opportunities to experience enhanced healthcare outcomes and lowered care costs.

Village Medical primary care physicians and Walgreens pharmacists work together to offer care for chronic health conditions, preventive services and treatment of everyday illnesses and injuries.

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Village Medical at Walgreens locations accepts a wide variety of health insurance options, including Medicare. Patients can seek care and support through in-person, at-home and telehealth visits. Within the same visit, patients can seek care from physicians while also ensuring that their prescriptions, medication refills and affordable substitution options are readily available.

Industry Prospects

Per a report published in Future Market Insights, the global value-based healthcare services market is projected to witness a CAGR of 20.9% during 2021-2031. Factors such as the increasing incidence of chronic diseases and greater requirements for high-quality care services are driving the market for value-based healthcare services.

Further, per the company's provided data, chronic health conditions account for 75% of Texas healthcare expenditures, yet many areas lack access to primary care.

Given these market prospects, the latest plans to open nine new Village Medical at Walgreens primary care practices in San Antonio seem well-timed.

Recent Developments

In November 2021, Walgreens and VillageMD announced plans to open 20 new Village Medical at Walgreens primary care practices in the Tampa area over the next year. The first Village Medical at Walgreens site in Tampa opened on Oct 26 at 6996 U.S. Highway 19 North in Pinellas Park, with several more locations set to open in early 2022. These openings represent expansion into the second-largest market in Florida, after Orlando.

In October 2021, Walgreens announced an increased investment in VillageMD to accelerate its strategic position in the delivery of value-based primary care. This investment will accelerate the opening of at least 600 Village Medical at Walgreens primary care practices in more than 30 markets in the United States by 2025 and 1,000 by 2027, with more than half of those practices in medically underserved communities.

Price Performance

Shares of the company have gained 21.5% in a year compared with the industry's rise of 33.1%.

Zacks Rank and Key Picks

Walgreens currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

Few better-ranked stocks from the broader medical space are Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc (NYSE:TMO). TMO, Laboratory Corporation of America (NYSE:LH) Holdings LH, or LabCorp and Medpace Holdings (NASDAQ:MEDP), Inc. MEDP.

Thermo Fisher, currently carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), reported third-quarter 2021 adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $5.76, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 23.3%. Revenues of $9.33 billion outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 12%. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Thermo Fisher has an estimated long-term growth rate of 14%. TMO surpassed estimates in the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 9.02%.

LabCorp, carrying a Zacks Rank #2, reported third-quarter 2021 adjusted EPS of $6.82, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 42.9%. Revenues of $4.06 billion outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 13.4%.

LabCorp has an estimated long-term growth rate of 10.6%. LH surpassed estimates in the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 25.7%.

Medpace reported third-quarter 2021 adjusted EPS of $1.29, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 20.6%. Revenues of $295.57 million beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 1.2%.

Medpace has an estimated long-term growth rate of 16.4%. MEDP surpassed estimates in the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 11.9%. It currently sports a Zacks Rank #1.

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