There’s an old saying that a person can’t go wrong becoming involved in the medical field, because according to the Allied Health Institute, people will always need medical care and the profession will always be in demand. While there is undoubtedly some wisdom to the notion of choosing a career in the medical field, trying to select which medical stocks will perform the best in any given year certainly cannot be said to have anywhere near that same degree of certainty.
Often the hottest medical stocks are those from companies showing real innovation in terms of new equipment, new medical processes, or areas of new growth such as acquisitions that broaden its product line. Based on that principle, i.e. innovative thought and performance equals profitable medical company, here are five medical company stocks which appear poised to record solid bottom lines in the coming year, and provide good return to investors.
Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY)
This company seems likely to perform very well in 2015, according to J.P. Morgan’s Lauri Kulikowski, based on anticipated product launches in the areas of immuno-oncology, HCV, and CDK-4/6. The immuno-oncology product especially seems likely to reach the market before the competition, giving it an excellent opportunity to achieve market share and earnings for the year. In addition, it appears to have real breadth within its niche, which points toward retention of its initial share. Having enjoyed a solid 15% return early in 2015, Bristol Myers Squibb is expected to maintain that rate of growth and possibly eclipse it later this year.
Illumina (ILMN)
One year ago at its analyst day, Illumina described a Total Available Market (TAM) of more than $20 billion in the areas of oncology, life sciences, reproductive health, forensics, transplant diagnostics, and genomics. The company has positioned itself strongly to capture a major share of this TAM, as it has re-aligned its business into five core divisions which are focused on these emerging technologies and services. The company has also demonstrated a solid historical ability to be innovative and aggressive in pursuit of its goals.
JAZZ Pharmaceuticals (JAZZ)
JAZZ makes this list on the strength of its positioning in terms of growth through internal means and through acquisition as well. It has a solid key asset, Xyrem, but has wisely acted to diversify its product line through acquisition, and since its current borrowing capacity is in the neighborhood of $3 billion, it would appear to have no obstacles along those lines.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX)
Valeant is a specialty pharmaceutical company which is another stock that is likely to do well in the coming year because of steady organic growth, as well as merger and acquisition activity. It seems probable that this business strategy will continue into the year ahead, because there are a number of both public and private companies which would be ideal candidates for M&A under the cost-efficient Valeant model.
Amgen Inc (AMGN)
This is a bio-technology company that focuses on the treatment of illnesses in the areas of general medicine, bone health, oncology, hematology, inflammation, nephrology, cardiovascular systems and other areas. Investor site, TheStreet, is carefully tracking this company, and has an optimistic outlook based on the convergence of some very positive investment measures such as its solid stock performance, growth in earnings-per-share, revenue growth, return on equity, and expanding profit margins.
Originally posted on April 3, 2015 @ 8:00 pm
