Please Watch My New YouTube Video: Quick Pick CVS

Please Watch My New YouTube Video: Quick Pick CVS

Today’s Quick Pick is CVS Health (CVS). CVS owns a unique combination of healthcare delivery channels. Drugstores, yes–9,000 of them. But the company also owns health insurance company, Aetna, and Caremark, the largest pharmacy benefit manager. And recently it moved into the primary care marketplace through its acquisition of Oak Street. The company reported earnings on Wednesday, February 7, and the stock was up about 3.25% after that. While the earnings were good, (they beat by $0.13) the guidance is what is important here. The company projected higher costs for 2024 and cut guidance for GAAP earnings ($7.06) and adjusted earnings ($8.30). The reason the stock went up despite these cuts is that everyone was expecting DEEPER cuts to guidance. CVS has been signaling for weeks that rising costs in 2024 could be painful for the healthcare sector as a whole, and the relatively minor cuts in guidance led to a rally in the stock. Morningstar calculates a fair value for CVS Health of $103 a share. The stock closed at $76.32 on February 9. The stock also pays a 2.36% dividend. The stock is a member of my Dividend Portfolio. That position is up 31.25% since October 28, 2020.

Special Report: 10 Great Growth Stocks that Are Getting Greater–today my 6th pick Danaher

Special Report: 10 Great Growth Stocks that Are Getting Greater–today my 6th pick Danaher

GREATER Growth Stock Pick #6: Danaher (DHR). Danaher is a smart (that’s key) serial acquirer–and asset divester–in the life sciences space. And that makes this stock very interesting in an environment where small, young life sciences companies might be looking for help/rescue/acquisition because they can’t raise capital in a tough part of the credit cycle. I like Danaher now, as well, because the stock looks to have just about completed its re-rating after a spike in sales during the Covid pandemic led to over enthusiasm about the stock.

Stocks rally on FBI director Comey’s second letter on Clinton emails

The hedges have been coming off today as the financial markets react to FBI director James Comey’s second letter on the FBI’s perusal of a trove of email’s on a laptop that was shared by Clinton aide Huma Abedin with her estranged husband (and former Dencratic Congressman from New York) Anthony Weiner. It’s not so much that Wall Street loves Hilary Clinton as that the markets fear the unpredictability of Donald Trump