Abbott Labs (ABT)

Had owned this in the past. They made a number of acquisitions, so patience is required. Acquired St. Jude, which he had seen losing market share to Boston Scientific. One concern is that they bloated out their balance sheet for this acquisition. Trading at about 18X, so not terribly inexpensive. Also, there are still some balance sheet risk. If you are a long-term player, they have a proven ability to execute on their operations, and it will likely get re-rated.

This fits the profile of the type of company he would want to be adding to, on days like today. It is in the sector that is tremendously out of favour. The healthcare sector was the only sector that had a negative return last year. It has started to be a little more resilient this year, but relative to the history of healthcare, valuations are far more reasonable. He likes this because it has a history and a culture of growing the dividend. They have a wonderful brand name. 2.4% dividend yield.

This is sitting at around 17.5X forward earnings. The St. Jude acquisition was a big one for them. It expanded their balance sheet. They still have the Alere acquisition overhang. Have some things to chew through this year in order to get the multiple expansion up to something like 21X, where its direct competitors would trade at. If a longer-term holder, you do have some upside on this.

This does branded generics, nutritionals and medical devices. Their branded generics have good exposure to emerging markets, areas that need the drugs but don’t necessarily have the money to pay for the branded version. A well diversified company run by great management. They have announced 2 acquisitions. The overhang on the stock is that if they do both transactions, they may have to issue equity to fund some of that.

Healthcare is one of the sectors in the broad N.A. market that is heavily out of favour. This is in the healthcare and equipment space, and is not one of those business that is deeply, deeply undervalued right now. It is in the process of trying to do a merger, and he is very reticent about recommending a stock that is in the process of having a merger in the US. He would much prefer an Allergan (AGN-N) where there is no potential deal risk at all. Abbott Labs is trading at 20X this year’s earnings, and Allergan is trading at about 18X, and is a much bigger growth story. Dividend yield of 2.33%. (See Top Picks.)

Significant emerging markets exposure. He sees better risk reward in other parts of the healthcare market.

Has 4 businesses, an established pharma, labs division, diagnostic division and a medical device division. Has owned this for some time. Recently made a couple of acquisitions, so the valuation hasn’t kept up with its peers. Part of the reason is because of hair on some of the acquisitions. They are looking to acquire another company for about $5 billion + $3 billion in debt, which would be complementary to their monitoring devices. Their larger acquisition is St. Jude Medical, highly complementary and a leader in cardiac rhythmic management. Paid $25 billion with about $5 billion debt. This is going to be cash and stock. A situation where patience is required. You have 6 months of a bit of noise around the acquisitions, and after that they will be integrated and begin their growth. He is writing options on this.

Acquiring St. Jude Medical to enhance their stent products, and Alere, which is a diagnostic company. The stock pulled back when they announced the St. Jude acquisition, as it is quite large. The company will probably have to issue some equity to fund both acquisitions. She really likes management. This is an attractive entry point.

Has not performed very well of late. He likes it going forward as well as their acquisition of St. Jude’s Medical, which will be accretive to the bottom line. This would be a nice time to pick up some shares.

Emerging markets represents about 40% of their earnings. Have a very strong branded generic division and a lot of that is in the emerging-market, so currency has been a huge head wind for them. Also, have a leading adult and infant nutritional business as well as medical devices. There was some concern that the medical device area was not growing as fast as some of their other businesses. Management is quite competent they can get things improving.

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.