Stock Market Picks – Best Healthcare stocks

Finding great stock market picks is something like finding a needle in a bunch of hay. In the healthcare sector, it is particularly difficult due to the ongoing debate on the health care reforms being proposed by current President Obama. No-one is sure what will be the outcome of this debate and it will affect a lot of health care companies.

Last year, health care stocks outperformed the S&P 500 index. The S&P 500 Index was down 38.49% but the healthcare components in the index were off only 24.48%. In the current situation where the healthcare debate is still going on, it is better to invest in big large cap companies from around the world which may not be affected much by either decision. Some of them are American companies and some are European. Let us take a look at them.

1. Abbott Laboratories (ABT) – This is a global health care company and has been in business for over 120 years. It operates in three divisions: Pharmaceuticals, Medical Products and Nutritional Products. Some of the brands from Abbott include Ensure, Pedialyte, Similac and SIMCOR.

2 Johnson and Johnson (JNJ) – This is a very famous company having various popular medical products like Acuvue, Neutragena, Listerine, Band-Aid, Tylenol, etc. JNJ is a solid long-term classic growth stock with an incredible ability to weather any kind of market.

3. GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK) – It is a UK based company with a truly global presence. Some of the popular brands from GSK include Avandia, Paxil, Zantac, Aquafresh, Eno and Nicorette.

4. Pfizer Inc. (PFE) – Pfizer is the world’s largest research-based biomedical and pharmaceutical company and it is based out of New York. Some of the popular brands include Aricept, Detrol, Viagra and Lipitor.

5. Merck & Co Inc. (MRK) – It is a New Jersey based company having operations in more than 25 countries. The popular brands from Merck include Singulair, Vytorin, etc.

6. Novartis AG (NVS) – This is a Switzerland based company and operates in three divisions – Pharmaceuticals, Vaccines and Diagnostics and Consumer Health. It has a long list of popular products like Lamisil, Gleevac, Exedrin, Gas-X, Maalox, etc.

Lastly, it is Roche Holding Inc which is traded in OTC market with ticker symbol of RHHBY. This is also based out of Switzerland. In addition to these large cap companies there are other companies which should also considered in health care and insurance sector. These include Humana (HUM), WellPoint (WLP), Aetna (AET) and Coventry (CVH). All these will surely benefit if the reforms bill is not passed. No matter what is the outcome of this reforms debate, one company which is a good bet is Israel based Teva Pharmaceutical (symbol TEVA) which is the world’s largest generic-drug maker and this makes it one of the best stock market picks.  Other companies which can be considered are Covance (CVD), CVS (CVS), Quest Diagnostics (DGX), Express Scripts (ESRX) and Charles River Laboratories (CRL). It is difficult to find the best healthcare stocks due to economic crises as well as reforms debate but the picture should be clearer in a few month’s time.

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