Merck & Company (MRK)

The small and mid-cap pharma sector has been on fire he says. On a relative basis, he believes, this may lead to acquisitions by the larger players. MRK-N has a big war chest to do this. He has not entered this space yet, but it is starting to check all his boxes for entry. He would suggest an ETF to diversify risk, especially at this stage of the cycle.

He started buying in December and thinks the market has beaten the stock up over the Trump Administration move to curb pharmaceutical pricing. He thinks the market is underestimating sales growth. The sector is in a secular bull market. Yield 3.1%. (Analysts’ price target is $69.16)

(A Top Pick September 14/17 - Down 4%) Nothing has changed. Still good dividends and fundamentals. Solid holding.

Like the stability. They are one of the leaders in immunotherapy and other lines of business. Core holding. Dividend yield is 3.1%. Market cap $165.8 billion. (Analysts’ price target is $69.16)

What healthcare stock to buy? In Canada, he likes Chartwell, in the U.S, Merck (MRK-N), and in Europe, Novo Nordisk.

He thinks the worst of the drugs going off patent is over. These guys have been really hurt by their patent cliff. It is a really good value name. He sees resistance at $67. It is a good sector to be in. (Analysts’ target: $68.79).

It is a stable stock with stable earnings. But the price momentum is weak.

A large, diversified pharma company with a hepatitis C franchise, but are really into immonotherapy and chemotherapy. They are getting positive results with their drugs, and will be the leader in this space. Own this with BMY-N and AZN-N preferrably (and not alone). A must-own stock in healthcare given their pipeline and leadership. Dividend yield of 3.5%. (Analysts' target of $67.25)

Unfortunately, pharmas/biotech have had a bit of a rough go. It was the mega-caps, not the small guys. This one reason he likes using ETF's in his mix. He prefers using the Spider S&P Biotech ETF (XBI-N).

He likes their leadership in drug therapies. They have their HEP-C and diabetes franchises. It is an easy hold for him. They are well diversified. They are number 3 in animal health products. It has a PE of 15.5 times next year’s earnings. (Analysts’ target: $70.00).

(Top Pick Feb 22/17, Up 3%) It has traded in line with others. It is a wonderfully run company with a deep pipeline into diabetes and arthritis. They are in the forefront of immunotherapies for arthritis. They are the leaders. 15.5 times forward earnings. It should trade in a double digit PE. He likes it for leadership and diversification.

Pfizer (PFE-N) or Merck (MRK-N)? Neither. These companies did very, very well back in the last part of the last century. Patent protection laws really haven’t given them enough of a boost to be able to cover the enormous costs of developing and testing the drugs, and there is a high failure rate. The companies have made massive consolidations. They’ve tried to grow by spending less. He would look at the Bio-Pharma area instead, such as Biogen (BIIB-Q) or Celgene (CELG-Q). Financially, these companies are in good shape and are growing.

(A Top Pick Feb 22/17. Up 30.86%.) His thesis on this was that this was one of the leaders in immuno ecology.