Thursday, April 19, 2007

Sector of Choice: Pharma

It is time to look into the future and find a sector that will continue to outperform the market. That sector is pharmaceuticals. Improvements in medications have paved the way for the average life expectancy to reach new heights. With the baby boomer generation nearing retirement, the demand for meds will increase dramatically. This fact, combined with the increasing life expectancy, should make for increased profits and a sharp rise in stock price. Additionally, the two companies I have been looking at (GlaxoSmithKline and Merck) have over 20 new products in phase three testing with countless more testing in phase one and two. Predicting a 15 - 20 percent approval rate, each company will release three to four new drugs onto the market. Each company also does extensive research in cancer treatments and Merck is the company developing the new cervical cancer vaccine for women and available soon will be the vaccine for men preventing the contraction of the disease by women. I predict this vaccine will be used much like the Hepatitis vaccine in middle school creating a huge revenue for the company. Both companies have experienced a run up over the last six months so I would wait for a dip in the price before buying in. Both will be big winners in the long run. Hope this information treats you well.

Thursday, March 29, 2007

In the Time of Need

Good day all. This is my first blog and it comes at a perfect time. Amidst the drastic ups and downs of the market over the past few months, one looks for a more stable sector to invest. That sector is bio-pharmaceuticals as well as small pharmaceutical research and development companies. What makes these companies safe is their inability to be influenced by foreign markets or even a declining Dow. They are influenced by their own developments, emerging research and breakthroughs. The only downside is that these companies tend to have larger betas and one bad report can make or break the company. What I did was use yahoo stock screener and set limits for a lower beta, a lower P/E ratio and analyst opinions between 1 and 2 (strong buy and hold). From the list that results choose the best company based on balance sheets and recent news. Recently I chose Aeterna Zentaris (AEZS) from that list and am up 4.6%. On a side note, companies dealing with cancer research and treatments tend to do better than others.
Hope this information treats you well.