Ryan Savitz

Becton Dickinson: Riding the Biotech Boom

David,

Great article. I have written a few myself on BDX and have held it for over a year. Great trade playing off the expansion of biotech. Another strong area for growth I feel is in Obama's Healthcare plans to reduce healthcare expenses. Although, Becton's systems and products are extremely expensive and cut into hospital CAPEX, they are essential monitoring devices that will cut down on extra tests that doctors might advise for patients. BDX is able to monitor and provide information on many illnesses at once in a more effective and efficient manner than many other competing devices out in the markets today.

Teva: What's Next for the 'Generic Giant'?

Well if you look at the history of Teva and how they have grown, it has been through small strategic acquisitions. The Barr acquisition was very large in relation to their historic purchases. If you examine TEVA versus the S&P 500 looking back through the last 5 years, Teva has increased about 46% while the S&P 500 has decreased about 27%. If you examine the bullet points about the acquisition you will notice they are managing it very well and have controlled their working capital:
* Cost synergies will be over $400 million versus the initial estimate of $300 million
* Accretion will be accretive to earnings in third quarter 2009 versus the initial estimate of fourth quarter 2009
* Leverage will return to the level it was before the Barr acquisition in 1 year (decrease from 34% to 24% by the end of 2009)

If you look at Teva during the last 6 months they are pretty much flat (decreased about 1%) while the S&P 500 decreased about 33%. So looking historically and more-so, during the recent economic downturn, Teva has performed extremely well.

You really cannot find any pure large cap companies that have grown organically.

On Mar 25 11:51 AM Chris B wrote:

> So we should buy this company on the basis of how well they've done
> previous acquisitions? Because they're acquisition experts? <br/>
>
> I'll stick with companies that grow organically. All the paper-pushing
> and rebranding in the the world doesn't do much for shareholder value.
> It's still true that 70% of mergers destroy shareholder value...
> so I would say it's an uphill battle for TEVA to create value this
> way even if they've been fortunate in the past.

Johnson & Johnson: Is It Too Late?

Sharon,

I agree that you need to position your portfolio to capture the upside on a recovery. However, I do not feel that a full recovery is in the near-term and you must diversify your portfolio. With that being said, you should have JNJ to make you more tied to the benchmark and have protection on the downside. When looking for those stocks to outperform on the upside, I would look to Biotech (DNA, CELG, GILD) or possibly some CRO's (ICLR, CVD, PPDI). Still, I am a little uncomfortable buying into any small caps, or SMIDs. Diversify with some larger cap companies with still high growth rates.

Water ETFs: Night and Day Differences in Investment Returns

Gary,

I like your analysis on water. Another similar article I found is www.bullishbankers.com.../.

The Long Case for Abbott Laboratories

Check out an interesting article on ABT here www.bullishbankers.com.../

Gilead Sciences: Industry Landscape, Strong Growth Make It a Buy

Check out an interesting article on GILD at www.bullishbankers.com.../