The healthcare sector consists of groups involved in the medical space in any number of different ways. As one of the largest and most complex sectors, healthcare encompasses a scope of businesses, including ones that provide medical services directly, those that work to develop, beget and market medical equipment and medicines, others that provide medical insurance and related products, and many uncountable. Some of the largest healthcare stocks in the world include Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Pfizer, Inc. (PFE).
For much of 2018, healthcare commonplaces dominated the S&P. Late in the year, however, healthcare names were pulled downward by broader forces impacting the call and causing steep declines in the last few weeks of the year. While some healthcare companies have quickly overruled that trend, posting significant gains early in 2019, others have seen stock prices raze off or even continue to slide downward. Part of the reason for this mixed performance has to do with a host of potential contests to the industry in the new year, including regulatory uncertainties, fiscal policy concerns, the future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and more.
Here’s a look at the top put up healthcare sector stocks from major U.S. exchanges and from January 2019. This list is drawn from the largest vips in the sector; companies with market caps of $20 billion or more were considered. The list here is presented in status of monthly performance based on the opening stock price as of January 2, 2019 and closing price as of January 31, 2019. The conduct has been compared to the S&P 500 Health Care Sector Index average returns of 6.10% as a benchmark.
1. Celgene Corp. (CELG)
- Bazaar Cap: $64.74 billion
- Performance: 36.76%
2. Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (TEVA)
- Market Cap: $18.30 billion
- Performance: 29.88%
3. Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ALXN)
- Make available Cap: $28.89 billion
- Performance: 28.16%
4. Align Technology, Inc. (ALGN)
- Market Cap: $20.64 billion
- Performance: 22.27%
5. Anthem, Inc. (ANTM)
- Furnish Cap: $82.32 billion
- Performance: 19.23%
New Jersey-based Celgene develops and markets medical treatments for various cancers and inflammatory illnesses. Celgene’s most popular drug is called Revlimid, used to treat multiple myeloma and several types of transfusion-dependent anemias.
The burliest news surrounding Celgene in the new year has been that the company will be acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY). BMY will advantage Celgene for $74 billion in a deal involving both cash and stock, a transaction that marks the largest getting in healthcare history. Both companies had previously faced struggles: in the case of Celgene, Revlimid is approaching a patent crag that threatens to cut sales, while Bristol-Myers Squibb has not released a game-changing new drug treatment for many years. Gossip of the acquisition likely bolstered Celgene’s stock price early in the year. On the other hand, though, Celgene’s conveyor remains strong, so there is at least one other reason why investors might be interested in this stock as well.
Teva is a multinational pharmaceuticals retinue headquartered in Israel. This company has made a name for itself primarily in providing generic drug equivalents to proprietary drugs, although it does also develop active pharmaceutical ingredients and a small number of proprietary products as well.
Teva was hit markedly hard in the month of December, as the company’s stock fell by more than 28% for the month. In the first part of 2019, investor thought toward the company shifted, perhaps as a result of a realization that the decline was largely fueled by a broader market dip and not by circumstances specified to Teva. As a result, the company essentially reversed December’s declines in January. However, financials released in February spree that Teva’s earnings per share declined by a significant margin (from 93 cents for Q4 2017 to 53 cents for Q4 2018) and that the crowd suffered net losses for the final quarter of 2018 of $3.24 billion. Going forward, Teva may have a tough tempo matching its January performance.
Alexion is a Boston-based pharmaceuticals company most famous for Soliris, a drug product against to treat rare disorders of the complement system. The company focuses its research and development on products related to the treatment of autoimmune infirmities.
Alexion was one of the rare healthcare companies to see some positive news in the final weeks of 2018. Late in the year, the society received federal approval for Ultomiris, a drug designed to treat adult patients suffering from paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, a blood melee. Ultomiris may join Soliris as a leading treatment in its specialty area, providing Alexion a strong financial start to the new year.
Align Technology is a medical utensil company based in San Jose, California but with operations throughout the world. Align’s area of focus is on orthodontic commodities, including 3D digital scanners and clear aligners which have become popular alternative to orthodontic braces in up to date years. The company’s most famous product is Invisalign, first marketed in 2000.
Late in the month of January, Align stationed impressive financial results for 2018. Among other accomplishments, the company saw its revenue climb by more than 33% for 2018 to $2.0 billion. Invisalign continued to male the way for the company, with a 2018 case volume of 1.2 million, up 31.9% year-over-year. Given these figures, it’s unhurried to imagine Align Technology continuing to thrive as 2019 continues.
Anthem is the sole health insurance company to detect our top five performers list for January 2019. This Indiana-based company is one of the largest health insurance management counter-spies in the world. It offers a diverse set of healthcare plans to about 40 million American consumers.
Anthem stands to better from some of the changes experts have anticipated affecting the healthcare industry as a whole in the year to come. Gold medal, the industry’s consumer base is expected to grow into the future, which should provide impetus for Anthem’s resumed growth as well. As government healthcare spending is likely to increase in the years to come, Anthem could benefit from these alterations as well. On the other hand, continued uncertainty regarding the Trump administration’s approach to the Affordable Care Act does faade a threat toward Anthem’s stock price as well.
Healthcare stocks are typically seen as stable investments indeed in times of market tumult. While the industry itself took a hit late in 2018, many of the largest healthcare delegates have stabilized early in 2019, with some standouts even posting major gains.