Abbott Labs (ABT)

Healthcare is a great sector, but the worst performing one year-to-date. Politicians are talking about capping prices for healthcare manufacturers, which doesn’t help. More importantly, Medicare and Medicaid US administrations are trying to cap prices and this one is being hit particularly hard. There are better names in this space.

Abbott Labs (ABT-N) or Johnson & Johnson (JNJ-N)? She likes healthcare as an overall investment because of the demographics. They both have FX headwinds because they are both international. Emerging markets is about 40% of this company’s revenues. If you want a diversified health care company that gives you an attractive yield, she would go with J&J.

He likes it. Everything under healthcare has been under pressure. Model $39 with a 3% upside. At $31 he would be very excited.

In the healthcare space, he prefers focusing on the health benefit managers such as an Aetna or United Health Group or some names in the biotech space such as Gilead, etc. The valuation on this one looks decent at 20X forward earnings and the growth rate is about 12%. The stock has dropped off quite a bit, so it is not in the space that he likes. (See Top Picks.)

Right now this is more if a consumer and diagnostic company. Has done quite well. Is very, very steady. Have increased their dividends 43 years in a row. A nice holding for somebody who wants to buy something and just stay with it over the long-term. However, the valuation is not cheap. Well-managed and should do well over the long-term.

He would wait for some sort of correction. Likes this. It is a leader in its field.

Has a really good upward trend. It is a little above trend right now. Great long-term chart. Healthcare is a great long-term trend that we are in, and you can’t go wrong. It will probably come back a little bit, but nothing to worry about.

(A Top Pick Oct 29/13. Up 22.2%.) A diversified health company. About 40% of their branded generic business is in emerging markets. They expect to increase that percentage. Also, a large player in the nutritional business. Their 3rd division is medical devices and diagnostics.

Spinning off another division. He loves the drug space, which is free of volatility. His model price is $45, a 10% upside.

(A Top Pick Oct 29/13. Up 13.13%.) A diversified global healthcare company. They have 4 divisions including brand generics which is more focused on emerging markets. Also, have a nutritional business as well as a stents division along with the diagnostic division. Pays a dividend of about 2%.

His model price is $48.91, a 14% upside. Saw that they are going to spin off another company, the gift that keeps on giving. He loves large-cap drug companies. Yield of 2.02%.

Doesn’t follow this one too closely. Recent reports indicate they are doing a lot of things to restart their growth.

(Top Pick July 9/13, Up 20.37%) Prefers to stay with this part of the business after the spin out. This is where the growth is. They have branded generics which are a growth area in emerging markets. The just made an acquisition to increase presence in Latin America where pharma should double in the next 5 years.

This one has outperformed the health care sector over the last few years. Sees a 15% growth rate on the dividend, but it is low compared to others. Prefers PFE-N.

Growth in large-cap pharmaceutical business is fairly anaemic. There are not a lot of great growth prospects. What he does like about this company is that they have a medical technology business, a nutritionals business as well as a traditional pharmaceutical business i.e. all the components of the healthcare sector. Feels there is some growth from an earnings perspective. (See Top Picks.)