The companies we’ve included are Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE), Merck & Co Inc. (NYSE: MRK), Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE: BMY), Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd. (NASDAQ: TEVA), Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN), and GlaxoSmithKline plc (NYSE: GSK).
Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) trades around $22.00 and the 52-week range is $16.63 to $22.00. With a $168 billion market cap, this one trades at about 15-times expected earnings and 9.5-times expected 2012 earnings. Thomson Reuters has a mean price target objective of $23.76, indicating implied upside of 8%.
Merck & Co Inc. (NYSE: MRK) trades near $38 and the 52-week range is $29.47-$39.00. With a $117 billion market cap, Merck trades at about 28-times expected earnings and 10-times expected 2012 earnings. The mean price target objective is $39.85, indicating a potential upside of 4.9%.
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE: BMY) trades near $34 and the 52-week range is $24.97-$35.44. With a market cap of about $58 billion, this one trades at about 17-times expected earnings and 17-times forward earnings. The mean price target objective is $32.91, indicating that shares are fully valued and upside potential has gone missing.
Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd. (NASDAQ: TEVA) trades at about $44 and the 52-week range is $35.00-$57.08. With a market cap of $39 billion, Teva trades at about 13-times earnings and 8-times forward earnings. The mean price target objective is $53.15, indicating an implied upside of nearly 21%. The company has also seen gains since disclosing a new CEO.
Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) trades at about $66 and the 52-week range is $47.66-$65.70. With a market cap of $58 billion, this one trades at about 16-times earnings and 11-times forward earnings. The mean price target objective is $65.45, and, like Bristol-Myers, Amgen is fully valued and there is no implied gain at the current price.
GlaxoSmithKline plc (NYSE: GSK) trades at about $44 and the 52-week range is $36.28-$46.50. With a market cap of $221 billion, this one trades at about 44-times earnings and 13-times forward earnings. The mean price target objective is $49.58, indicating an implied upside of 12.7%.
Only Teva and GlaxoSmithKline have double-digit upside potential percentage gains. Of the two, Teva’s upside potential is greater, largely because it just lost a patent dispute (which pushed the share price down) and gained a new CEO, an industry veteran from Bristol-Myers (which pushed the share price back up). The downside on the company is that it is trading down about -18% over the past 12 months, the only one of these six companies to show a loss for the period.
Glaxo is preparing a regulatory filing in the US with a replacement for the company’s Adair asthma drug which loses patent protection next year. Late-stage trials have been promising, and the stock could get a nice boost if the FDA grants approval. Glaxo also received three new drug approvals from the FDA in 2011,
Paul Ausick
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