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Amedisys to Buy Intercity Home Care, Boosts Personal Care Arm

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Associated Home Care, a subsidiary of Amedisys, Inc.  (AMED - Free Report) recently entered into an agreement to acquire Intercity Home Care. Per the agreement which is scheduled to close on Oct 1, 2017, Intercity Home Care’s entire asset base will be taken over by Associated Home Care.

Post the successful acquisition, the renowned home health and hospice services provider will have a more wide spread presence in the Massachusettsas Intercity Home Care has four locations throughout the Greater Boston, North Shore and Merrimack Valley communities. Moreover, Amedisys will also gain access to an extended customer base as they expect to serve around 19,000 clients in Massachusetts.

The company has been making encouraging moves with respect to its recently integrated — Personal Care business.During the last reported quarter, net service revenues at Personal Care witnessed a 53.2% increase year over year. This segment generated operating income of $1 million in the quarter.

Also, Amedisys is looking forward to huge growth prospects within personal care segment.Moreover, per management the segment is performing as per their expectation as they integrate recent tuck-in acquisitions.

Earlier to this, in March the company decided to buy personal care provider, East Tennessee Personal Care Service. The company believes this acquisition to expand its personal care footprint outside of Massachusetts. Notably, the management expects the company to have enough cash balance left to make plenty of such acquisitions in the future.

Moreover, Amedisys is currently exploring opportunities in the Home Health and Hospice segments too. The company’s favorable demographic trend and strategic acquisitions encourage us as well.

Moreover, Amedisys has been gaining investor confidence on consistent positive results. Over the past month, the company’s share price has outperformed the broader industry. The stock has gained 10.5%, in comparison with the broader industry’s  1.6% gain. The company has also outperformed the 0.2% fall of the S&P 500 market over the same time frame.

Zacks Rank & Other Key Picks

Amedisys carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Other top-ranked medical stocks are Edwards Lifesciences Corporation (EW - Free Report) , Lantheus Holdings, Inc. (LNTH - Free Report) and IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. (IDXX - Free Report) . Edwards Lifesciences sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), while Lantheus Holdings and IDEXX Laboratories carry a Zacks Rank #2. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Edwards Lifesciences has a long-term expected earnings growth rate of 15.2%. The stock has rallied roughly 19.8% over the last six months.

Lantheus Holdings has a long-term expected earnings growth rate of 12.5%. The stock has gained 21.6% over the last six months.

IDEXX Laboratories has a long-term expected earnings growth rate of 19.8%. The stock has gained around 2.9% over the last six months.

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