Patterson Companies PDCO recently partnered with Cure Partners to form a new business, Technology Partner Innovations, LLC. The business venture is gearing up to launch a cloud-based practice management software, NaVetor. Notably, NaVetor is a software designed for veterinary practices that can create and maintain electronic medical records (EMR).
The latest development is likely to boost Patterson Companies’ core Animal Health segment apart from providing the company with a significant exposure to big data trends in the MedTech space.
Over the past month, shares of Patterson Companies have rallied 9.4%, outperforming the industry’s 4.1%. Of the latest developments, the company launched a new cloud practice management software, Fuse, to meet evolving dental industry needs in April.
The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Animal Health in Focus
This core segment is a leading distributor of products and services to companion animal health markets in North America and the U.K.
In the last reported quarter, the segment accounted for 60.5% of the company’s total sales. Moreover, revenues in the segment rose 2.5% on a year-over-year basis to $848 million.
Big Data Takes Healthcare Industry by Storm
The U.S. healthcare industry is fast catching up with the digital-data age. Enormous size of data can be captured through technology for arriving at business insights. This helps the healthcare sector provide better care and reduce wastage. The latest trend of electronic health record (EHR) has also been gaining popularity. After EMR, it is the most common application of big data in healthcare.
Some of the major MedTech bigwigs, which have carved out a niche in the big data domain, are Cerner Corporation CERN and athenahealth, Inc. ATHN.
Cerner’s HealtheIntent and Millennium are big data platforms, which provide the company with significant exposure to AI (Artificial Intelligence) trends in the medical world.
athenahealth recently launched athenaNet to share relevant clinical information with doctors as well as patients.
Market Prospects
Per a research by MarketsandMarkets, the global veterinary software market is expected to reach $594.3 million by 2022 from $442.5 million in 2017, at a CAGR of 6.1%. Factors such as rising companion animal ownership and growing animal health expenditure fuel growth.
Hence it can be concluded that Patterson Companies’ latest move has been a timely and strategic one.
Key Pick
A better-ranked stock in the broader medical space is Genomic Health GHDX.
Genomic Health has an expected earnings growth rate of 187.5% for the current quarter. The stock sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
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