Resuscitation devices maker ZOLL Medical (ZOLL) has forged a long-term agreement with leading integrated media intelligence solutions provider VMS. The deal provides ZOLL Medical with access to VMS’s real-time media monitoring and analytics services.
New York-based VMS offers comprehensive media monitoring, competitive advertising monitoring and analysis solutions to advertising agencies, public relations firms and marketing professionals globally. Its cutting-edge solutions range includes industry-leading web-based media tracking and management tools including the “VMS InSight” platform, which allow users to plan, manage and evaluate public relations campaigns.
VMS’s media monitoring and analytics solutions provide customers with information (including text transcripts and real-time video) from national broadcast and radio markets as well as online print publications, Internet and social media sites. The partnership with VMS will enable ZOLL Medical to obtain accurate and proper information for its life-sustaining products.
ZOLL Medical is a leading player in the global market for external defibrillators, which is worth more than $1 billion. The company is the innovator of a wide range of product features that have become the standard of care in the external defibrillator industry. ZOLL Medical is expanding its presence in the international markets, which should significantly push growth.
The company’s LifeVest wearable defibrillator business, which has been its lifeblood, continues to grow at a healthy quarterly run rate, benefiting from increased awareness of the product and associated sales force enhancements. The device has been already prescribed to more than 30,000 patients at high risk of sudden cardiac arrest (“SCA”) by their physicians.
ZOLL Medical remains committed to broadening its product range to sustain growth in the U.S. defibrillation market. The company’s U.S. military-focused business is poised for a turnaround in fiscal 2011 driven by its Propaq MD defibrillator and the new Propaq M heart monitor.
We are pleased with ZOLL Medical’s solid fundamentals, its broad product range, healthy revenue/margin mix and upbeat prospect for LifeVest. Moreover, its significant international presence should also drive growth. The company has completed multiple acquisitions and is seeking more such lucrative transactions to aid growth.
However, ZOLL Medical operates in a highly competitive defibrillation market In the U.S. It competes with Physio-Control, a wholly-owned unit of Medtronic (MDT) and Philips (PHG). Moreover, the North American emergency medical services (“EMS”) market remains sluggish, in part, due to a still soft capital spending backdrop. Currently, we have a Neutral recommendation on ZOLL Medical, which is supported by a short-term Zacks #3 Rank (Hold).
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