Amerisourcebergen Corp (ABC-N)

One of the three major US drug distributors. Partnered with Walgreens to buy drugs from manufacturers in bulk, then sell to pharmacies and hospitals at profit. Trades at a low multiple. The industry has challenges: generic pricing has been soft and declining, but that's stabilizing now to ABC's margins. ABC has the highest exposure among its peers to specialty pharmaceuticals which are growing faster at higher margins. Their contracts are set through 2020. (Analysts' price target $103.87)

This drug distributor controls huge volumes of non-proprietary distribution networks. There is uncertainty in health care generally however. It is very inexpensive here. He would consider buying at these levels.

He is not a big fan of drug distributors. The technical chart has been whippy. He would prefer to see higher highs on the chart and confirmed by relative strength. The healthcare space is neutral in their valuation. (Analysts’ price target is $105 )

CVS Health Corp (CVS-N) vs Walgreen Boots Alliance (WBA-O) or stay out of health care? He prefers Walgreen between the two, due to their Rite Aid acquisition. They feel that a safer option is AmerisourceBergen (ABC-N) as they are more on the distribution side.

(A Top Pick April 4/16. Up 4%.) Part of the fallout from the healthcare situation in the US. Trading at very mid-teen multiples, much less than what the market is trading at. Also, this is partially owned by Walgreens (WBA-Q) who got the contract away from CVS (CVS-N), so there is going to be an extra 40 million prescriptions going to be written that Amerisource is going to take advantage of. He is going to continue to Buy more.

One out of 5 pills we take are coming from this company. A very well-run company with a terrific free cash flow yield of just under 10%. Very profitable. Reasonably cheap, because healthcare has come under pressure. This is closely related to Walgreens (WBA-Q) which he has recommended in the past. Walgreens is their biggest customer. Dividend yield of 1.6%. (Analysts’ price target is $90.)

MCK-N vs. ABC-N. He likes both, but prefers Cardinal Health (CAH-N). Those running for election are talking limits of drug prices.

A big drug distributor. Part of the problem is drug pricing, and generic pricing has become a bit of a political issue as well. Have a sustainable and growing dividend, but now it is in a situation where even if management gets it all right, there is a huge investor turnover to work through before starting to make your money back. He tends to avoid these because the return over time is not very good.

Inflation was driving their revenues and now has come off a bit. It is a long term hold. Over the counter oncology drugs are slowing and so pricing power is getting weaker. Walgreen has been exercising some warrants and so is diluting the stock. Now they should get back to doing what they are doing. It may do nothing for 2 years.

(BNN had the date as Nov 28/13, but I show Nov 8/13.) (A Top Pick Nov 8/13. Down 0.32%.) A distributor, not a manufacturer of pharmaceuticals. Have Walgreen (WAG-N) and Bootes as their biggest partners. Share price has been a little weak only because they issued warrants to Walgreens and issued long-term debt to buy back shares to offset the warrants. Going to start hitting its earnings growth over 2015-2016.

(He recommends you take a half position only because these Top Picks are trading at multiples that are higher than average, but are still attractive as long-term investments.) Distributes pharmaceuticals to hospitals and doctors offices. With the recent joint venture with Walgreen’s (WAG-N) and Alliance Boots in England, this gives them a new footprint into Europe. There is a lot of room for this company to grow.