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3 Digital HealthCare Stocks in the Spotlight Amid Coronavirus

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The coronavirus pandemic continues to rattle the global economy, with each of the benchmark indices having seen huge drawdowns several times since the virus broke out last December. In April, despite a record number of job losses, the market moved up with the introduction of several fiscal aids by governments across nations. However, health experts’ ‘warning of a potential second wave’ dampened sentiments soon. Despite this, there was another temporary market rebound in late May on recovery in employment rate.

However, the optimism seemed to be short-lived with a fresh wave of coronavirus cases erupting in the United States and China following a rushed ‘unlocking’ has once again put the market into the grim recently with the forecast of significant fall in global GDP in 2020.

Per an article published in The Guardian in May, the IMF projected a 3% contraction of the global economy in 2020.

What’s the MedTech Situation?

Amid this crisis, most medical device companies across various domains reported huge revenue losses in the first quarter of 2020. Due to uncertainty regarding the impact and extent of the pandemic, most leading companies slashed or withdrew their guidance for the full year.

Needless to say, investors keen on MedTech stocks are currently spooked by this rising pessimism.

While growth has taken a backseat for most of the medical device sectors now, investors should also take note of the enormous prospects the virus has opened up for a few. Digital healthcare is one such profitable bet now.

Let us delve deeper:

State of Digital Health Management Amid COVID-19

In the face of the pandemic, the digital health management space continues to thrive on a number of positive developments.

Digital healthcare options have been seeing a spike in demand on increased consumer adoption of telehealth and remote patient monitoring tools. Moreover, the insurance industry has started financing its customers to use non-traditional digital health services while they are at home.

One digital healthcare trend that has been in vogue since the onset of the pandemic is telemedicine. It enables health care professionals to diagnose and treat patients remotely, through the use of telecommunications technology. In fact, telemedicine stocks got a boost when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asked healthcare service communities to increase the adoption of telemedicine in February.

In this regard, Teladoc Health (TDOC - Free Report) is currently facilitating health systems to provide virtual care on a larger scale through the technology-driven capabilities of both Teladoc Health and its newly-acquired InTouch Health platform.

The other trend worth mentioning is remote patient monitoring.  It is a form of AI-driven technology, which has been designed to collect patient data outside of traditional healthcare settings and carefully monitor patient health status. The FDA has approved the expanded use of remote patient monitoring technologies with the aim of minimizing hospital visits, thereby reducing the risk of exposure to the virus.

In this regard, PRA Health, Inc. recently enhanced its commercial Health Harmony COVID-19 Monitoring Program by integrating it with the Microsoft Healthcare Bot service. Users of the PRA Health Harmony digital platform, enrolled under the organization’s COVID-19 Monitoring Program, can use the AI-based chatbot which recognizes and responds to COVID-19-related queries.

3 Stocks in Focus

Here are three digital health management stocks with a Zacks Rank#3 (Hold) which have been delivering robust performance lately. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, Inc (MDRX - Free Report) : In May, this company’s business unit Veradigm inked a deal with Surescripts to enhance its Veradigm AccelRx specialty medication fulfillment solution with Surescripts Specialty Patient Enrollment. In March, Allscripts created a specialized plan for clients to swiftly implement telehealth at their organizations through its electronic health record (EHR)-agnostic patient engagement platform.

Over the past month, the company’s shares have outperformed its industry. The stock has gained 9.1% compared with the sector’s 3.7% growth.

 

Masimo Corporation (MASI - Free Report) : This company develops, manufactures and markets a family of non-invasive monitoring systems. It recently announced the full market release of Masimo SafetyNet, which is an economically scalable cloud-based patient management solution, created to enable clinicians to provide care for patients in hospital settings and non-traditional settings remotely. This solution is now available globally and is likely to aid clinicians and health workers in fighting COVID-19.

In the past three months, the company’s shares have outperformed the industry. The stock has gained 36.8% compared with the industry’s 29.6% rise.

VEEVA Systems Inc. (VEEV - Free Report) : In March, this company commercially launched Veeva Data Cloud, a world-class technology platform, designed for the development and delivery of large-scale patient data and analytics. Veeva Data Cloud’s longitudinal patient and prescriber data solution is expected to launch in the U.S. market by December 2020.

In May, the company announced MyVeeva for clinical trials. It is a software designed to enable clinical research sites to interact more remotely with their patients to have a mix of in-office and virtual visits.

In the past six months, the company’s shares have outperformed the industry. The stock has gained 63.8% compared with the industry’s 41.2% growth.

Zacks’ Single Best Pick to Double

From thousands of stocks, 5 Zacks experts each picked their favorite to gain +100% or more in months to come. From those 5, Zacks Director of Research, Sheraz Mian hand-picks one to have the most explosive upside of all.

This young company’s gigantic growth was hidden by low-volume trading, then cut short by the coronavirus. But its digital products stand out in a region where the internet economy has tripled since 2015 and looks to triple again by 2025.

Its stock price is already starting to resume its upward arc. The sky’s the limit! And the earlier you get in, the greater your potential gain.

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