Sanofi-Aventis (SNY)

The best time to buy drug stocks is after they have faced a patent cliff. They have lots of cash but they have to find new drugs by research or buy buying. Sanofi has lost competitions to buy drugs because they won’t pay too much for them. The stock has been behaving better lately as some of the acquisitions have been doing well. He thinks this is a good time to buy. (Analysts’ price target is $48.25)

A French pharmaceutical company, who has been impacted by patent protection ending on some key products. They lost out on a couple of acquisitions, that the company felt was too expensive. He believes this is a long term hold that will pay off over time. Yield 4.4%. (Analysts’ price target is $46)

(A Top Pick May 1/17, Down 12%) He is being patient with it as they buy companies that are patient with new drugs.

A direct competitor of Novo-Nordisk (NVO-N) in one part of their business. Their franchise in multiple sclerosis and vaccine business is their big powerhouse, but overall, revenues only grew by 2% in the quarter, and they've seen a drop off in their diabetes cardiovascular unit, which is where the growth is. He prefers Novo-Nordisk.

An international health care company, mainly in rare diseases, MS, immunology and oncology. Has been growing both by acquisition and through drugs of its own. Earlier this year, they bought Boehringer Ingelheim’s consumer products division. The latest quarter was a little soft and the market has punished them. He doesn’t worry about quarter to quarter. They’ve developed some drugs with Regeneron. Their partnership is dissolving, but any drugs they’ve developed, will continue on. A good, long term investment. Dividend yield of 3.7%. (Analysts’ price target is $54.)

(Top Pick July 25/16, Up 18.67%) They faced a patent cliff. They invested in smaller companies. He thinks the outlook is quite good.

The ADR trades in New York. He does well buying drug companies when out of favour. They all face patent cliffs from time to time. The made acquisitions of some promising new drugs. They have an exemplary balance sheet. People hated it because they were in France with an election pending. (Analysts’ target: $47.00).

Healthcare stocks are totally out of favour and look interesting. As this is in Europe, it is somewhat out of the grasp of what might happen in the US regulatory market.

French drug stock. People hate French investments and people don’t like drug stocks. They are facing a patent cliff. The stock is down and this is historically the best place to buy drug stocks. They will likely make acquisitions with their hoard of cash.

The big drop was related to the poor performance of the diabetes drug. When the CEO gets let go after announcing poor earnings it is not a catalyst. He wonders if they have a proper pipeline. He suggests staying away from it although there is some definite value here.

They missed their numbers by a little bit. They had a nice run, 3.7% yield, 14 times earnings. This would be a great company to buy and sell off its parts. It is not huge in any particular area. It will benefit from the possibility of takeovers in the industry. You get a good rate of return but you won’t get a huge upside.

Has looked at this recently because they have some good drugs in their pipeline, but his preference right now in Europe is Shier (?) which he thinks is well-positioned.