Shares of Fitbit (FIT) are rising after the wearables company and Google (GOOG, GOOGL) announced a partnership to explore the development of consumer and enterprise health solutions.

WHAT'S NEW: Fitbit and Google announced Monday that they will work together to "innovate and transform" the future of digital health and wearables in an effort to create positive health outcomes for people globally. The companies said they are exploring the development of consumer and enterprise health solutions and Fitbit intends to use Google's new Cloud Healthcare API to help integrate further into the healthcare system. Fitbit said combining its data with electronic medical records can offer patients and clinicians a more comprehensive view of the patient profile resulting in more personalized care. The companies also said they are seeking to help better manage chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension by using services such as Fitbit's recently acquired Twine Health and its health dashboard interface. Fitbit will move to the Google Cloud Platform in ordered to accelerate the efforts. In the future, the company hopes to leverage Google's machine learning capabilities to draw insights from large groups of patients and said Google's artificial intelligence could be used in ways that may directly affect health care costs, according to a Fast Company report.

EXECUTIVE COMMENTARY: "Over the past decade, we have built an incredible foundation as the leading wearables brand, helping millions of people around the world make lasting behavior changes that improve their health and wellness through fun and engaging experiences. Working with Google gives us an opportunity to transform how we scale our business, allowing us to reach more people around the world faster, while also enhancing the experience we offer to our users and the healthcare system," said James Park, Fitbit co-founder, and chief executive officer. "This collaboration will accelerate the pace of innovation to define the next generation of healthcare and wearables."

ANALYST VIEW: Following the announcement, Craig-Hallum analyst Alex Fuhrman said he believes Fitbit is viewed as the "ideal healthcare partner" among fitness tracker makers due to its massive wealth of consumer health data, including over 100B hours of heart rate information. The analyst said he thinks the company's data is "significantly more valuable" than that of the Apple (AAPL) Watch for the simple reason that most Fitbit devices have a battery life of approximately four days, allowing Fitbit users to wear the device to sleep and thus collect data continuously for 24 hours. He reiterated a Buy rating and $10 price target on Fitbit's shares.

PRICE ACTION: Fitbit rose 8.1%, or 43c, to $5.73 in morning trading.