Medication and supply management provider Omnicell, Inc. OMCL) recently introduced a new generation of medication and supply automation that is fully integrated with the company's Unity enterprise platform – XT series. The series includes automated medication and supply dispensing cabinets, the Anesthesia Workstation and Controlled Substance Manager. XT Automated Medication Cabinets are also fully integrated with Connect-Rxfrom Aesynt so that customers in the U.S. who use AcuDose-Rxcabinets can benefit from the new hardware without changing their software or server infrastructure.
For the last six months, Omnicell’s share price consistently underperformed the Zacks categorized Medical products market trend. However, the company picked up steam post its third-quarter results wherein earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate and revenues were in line with the mark. For the last six months, the stock has a negative return of 6.3%, which compares favorably with the negative return of 11.1% for the broader Medical Products industry. We believe the company’s several recent strategic executions including the launch of XT series, in line with the earlier adopted three-pronged strategy will boost Omnicell’s share price further in the near future.
Omnicell has developed XT Automated Dispensing Cabinets with modern new hardware technology and smart features that improve workflow efficiency, medication accountability and patient safety. The XT system offers a high degree of flexibility and is also readily adaptable to future innovations.
The XT Series portfolio supports Omnicell’s automation and analytics segments. We note that, over the past two decades, Omnicell has emphasized on improving and upgrading software for its automated medication and supply dispensing systems. In order to improvise its systems based on emerging technologies, Omnicell has built a new hardware and electronics architecture for XT Series.
The new design allows more medications to be stocked within the same footprint. The XT cabinets offer 50% more capacity compared to similar units in the market. Also, the new cabinets were designed on a rigorous testing program and have been evaluated by over 800 users across the country.
Management claims that the new XT series benefits both the nursing and pharmacy sides. The screen response time is much faster than the earlier version of generation cabinets, which allows giving time to healthcare staff for patient care. The increased capacity enables physicians to accommodate 30%–40% more medications in the same space.
As per a Research and Markets report, the global pharmacy automation market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8% during 2016–2021. The modest growth is likely to be driven by catalysts such as introduction of robotic automation in pharmacy for optimum production and less error and wide application of pharmacy automation products to serve pharmacy and other healthcare domains. To address such needs, the XT Automated Dispensing Cabinet is designed to reduce non-value added steps and increase medication safety.
As stated earlier, Omnicell’s XT series introduction is in line with its three-pronged strategy to track new customers for its clinical automation technologies. Its automation analytics segment comprises OmniRx automated dispensing cabinets, anesthesia workstations, central pharmacy, Omnicell supply, Omnicell analytics and MACH4 robotic dispensing systems. The recent purchase of Avantec, MACH4 and Aesynt this segment, are also part of its strategy to expand into new markets through strategic partnerships and acquisition of new technologies.
Key Picks
Favorably ranked stocks in the medical sector are NxStage Medical Inc. NXTM, Baxter International Inc. BAX, Cardiovascular Systems Inc. CSII and Bovie Medical Corporation BVX. NxStage Medical and Baxter International sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) while Cardiovascular Systems and Bovie Medical carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
NxStage Medical surged 24.1% over the last one year compared to the S&P 500’s 6.2% over the same period. The company has a four-quarter average positive earnings surprise of 50.00%.
Baxter International rallied 16.3% over one year, much higher than the S&P 500. It has a trailing four-quarter average positive earnings surprise of 27%.
Cardiovascular Systems observed a 62.1% gain over one year, much higher than the S&P 500. It has a trailing four-quarter average positive earnings surprise of 31.8%.
Bovie Medical recorded a 116.1% gain in the past one year, way better than the S&P 500. The company has a trailing four-quarter positive average earnings surprise of 28.7%.
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