Perrigo: An Israeli Stock on Steroids

With the news that Barry Bonds was indicted on perjury charges, I thought it would be appropriate to take a look at an Israeli stock whose year to date (YTD) performance has been so good, it’s as if the company was on steroids. And, it just so happens that it is a pharmaceutical company.

Perrigo (PRGO) has surged about 80% YTD. Perrigo is a leading global healthcare supplier that develops, manufactures and distributes over-the-counter (OTC), and prescription pharmaceuticals, nutritional products, active pharmaceutical ingredients [API], and consumer products. The company is the world’s largest manufacturer of OTC pharmaceutical products for the store brand market. While it’s not technically an Israeli company, after all it is based in Michigan and has been around for more than 100 years, a lot of its development and manufacturing is done in Israel, and it bought an Israeli Pharma company a few years ago.

The company had a great quarter, and raised its outlook. Its fiscal ‘08 outlook range was raised to between $1.12 and $1.22 a share. Earlier, it had forecast earnings of $1.00 to $1.10 per share.

While it doesn’t produce anything that will make you a home-run champ, it is launching a new heartburn drug. Barry, with all the legal trouble you may want a prescription.

Disclosure: The author has a position in PRGO as of November 16, 2007.