Irvine-based Masimo Corp. and Chicago’s Baxter International Inc.—which has 300 workers in Orange County—are among the hospital supply and equipment companies poised to outperform the broader stock market in the second half of this year.
Morgan Keegan & Co. analyst Lawrence Keusch upgraded his outlook on the sector to positive from neutral in a research note.
Keusch based his view on several factors, including prospects in emerging markets such as China and Brazil, where the demand for hospital supplies and equipment is growing and numbers of surgeries have stabilized.
The trend led the analyst to tap Masimo, a maker of patient monitoring devices, as a timely stock pick along with Baxter, a diversified hospital supplier.
Keusch predicted Masimo’s shares could strengthen through the rest of the year after dropping 10% in May following its first-quarter earnings report.
Masimo’s shares are up 1% for the year and the company has a recent market value of about $1.8 billion.
Masimo is scheduled to report its second-quarter earnings on Aug. 9.
Analysts are looking for the company to post a profit of $17.1 million on sales of $111.3 million.
As for Baxter, Keusch said that it was “on the cusp of margin expansion” after two years of relatively flat margins.
Grubb Buys in Philadelphia
Santa Ana-based Grubb & Ellis Co. said its healthcare real estate unit paid $75 million for a skilled nursing portfolio that includes five buildings in the Philadelphia area.
The nursing homes combine for 392,000 square feet of space and 1,200 patient beds. They are leased to Mid-Atlantic Health Care LLC of Baltimore.
Grubb & Ellis Healthcare REIT II bought the buildings from New Courtland Elder Services Inc., an unaffiliated third party represented by Aaron Kneas and Dan Brown of Creative Health Capital LLC, an Evanston, Ill.-based healthcare investment bank.
$15M for Oncology Chain
Integrated Oncology Network LLC, a Corona del Mar healthcare services company, received $15 million in debt and equity financing from the Comvest Group of West Palm Beach, Fla.
Integrated provides oncology management, development and advisory sources, and capital for medical practices and hospitals.
Comvest said in a release that the deal is in conjunction with Integrated acquiring a minority interest in Vicura LLC, a company that owns four radiation oncology centers in Southern California, a medical physics company and a medical radiation oncology billing company.
Vicura is doctor-owned and also provides radiation oncology medical services at four hospital-based cancer centers.
New AmerisourceBergen Chief
Steven Collis, a former executive with Bergen Brunswig Corp. when it was independent and based in Orange, is the new chief executive of its successor company, AmeriSourceBergen Corp. in Valley Forge, Pa.
Collis succeeds David Yost, who retired July 1 after 37 years with the diversified pharmaceutical services company AmeriSourceBergen and its predecessor, AmeriSource Health Corp.
Collis previously was president and chief operating officer at AmeriSourceBergen. He’s spent 17 years with AmeriSourceBergen and Bergen Brunswig.
AmeriSourceBergen was formed in 2001 through AmeriSource’s buy of Bergen Brunswig for $3.2 billion. Collis was one of a handful of former Bergen executives who stayed on after the deal.
Apria in Kansas
Apria Healthcare Group Inc., a Lake Forest-based home healthcare company, recently opened an infusion and specialty pharmacy in Wichita, Kan., the Wichita Eagle reported.
The Wichita pharmacy is one of three specialty pharmacies that Apria plans to open this year, according to the report. The others are in Pensacola, Fla., and Charleston, S.C.
Apria, which has some $2 billion in yearly revenue, is owned by New York’s Blackstone Group LP, which took it private in a $1.6 billion buyout in 2008.
Bits and Pieces
Mission Viejo-based Auxilio Inc., which helps hospitals and other healthcare providers cut their dependence on paper records, said it expanded a contract with the recently formed Saint Alphonsus Health System in Boise, Idaho. The contract now includes four hospitals and the health system’s financial center … The Aubrey Group, a medical device manufacturer in Costa Mesa, added Jim Corbett and Steve Toth to its board. Corbett is chief executive of Vertos Medical Inc. in Aliso Viejo; Toth recently retired from Ev3 Inc. in Irvine, now a unit of Covidien Ltd., as vice president of neurovascular operations … Wayne Poon, director of the University of California, Irvine’s MIND brain bank and tissue repository, participated in a congressional briefing last week on Alzheimer’s research. The briefing was co-hosted by La Jolla-based California Healthcare Institute and the HealthCare Institute of New Jersey.
