3 Trending Health Care Stocks Gaining Investors’ Attention Now
Health care remains an immensely vital industry both in the world and stock market today. As such, health care stocks would likely be in high demand as well. If anything, this would be the case now more than ever. Despite the industry’s best efforts, the Delta variant of the coronavirus continues to wreak havoc worldwide. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it is one of, if not the most infectious viruses in human history. Just this week, five states in the U.S. hit record highs for their average number of daily coronavirus cases over the weekend. Hawaii health director, Dr. Elizabeth Char said, “We are on fire. When we have hospitals that are really worried about being able to take care of people, that’s a crisis.”
Not to mention, the effects from this round of infections appear to be affecting the current reopening trade as well. Earlier today, it was reported that retail sales in the U.S. dropped by a whopping 1.1% in July. This greatly underperforms the Dow Jones estimates of 0.3%. With the pandemic seemingly coming back in full force, the spotlight could once again be on the health care industry.
Even now, CNBC’s Jim Cramer is already highlighting his top picks for the current Delta variant wave. The Mad Money host argued that Regeneron (NASDAQ: REGN) is a viable play in the stock market now. According to Cramer, Regeneron’s coronavirus antibody treatment would stand to benefit from its wide applications. At the same time, even vaccine companies like AstraZeneca (NASDAQ: AZN) are actively combating the Delta variant now. Overall, as the health care industry continues to fight this pandemic, health care stocks remain viable plays in the stock market. With that said, here are three making waves now.
Best Health Care Stocks To Buy [Or Sell] This Week
- Moderna Inc. (NASDAQ: MRNA)
- Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE)
- Clover Health Investments Corporation (NASDAQ: CLOV)
Moderna Inc.
First on this list, we have Moderna, a health care company that focuses on vaccine development. Today, it has a diverse clinical portfolio of vaccines and therapeutics across six modalities. The company’s mRNA platform builds on continuous advances in mRNA science, delivery technology, and manufacturing and has allowed for the development of vaccines for cardiovascular diseases, infectious diseases, and auto-immune diseases among others. MRNA stock currently trades at $394.09 as of 10:51 a.m. ET.
On Monday, the company announced a revised supply agreement with the Government of Canada for up to 105 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine. This also includes Moderna’s booster vaccine candidate, if authorized, for delivery through 2024. The agreement provides for 20 million doses each year in 2022 and 2023, with an option for an additional 15 million doses each year. For 2024, the agreement provides an option for up to 35 million doses. This is on top of the countless supply agreements the company has made in the past year.
In regards to the news of its booster shot, the company last Friday announced FDA authorization for the third dose of its coronavirus vaccine for immunocompromised individuals. “We recognize the need to protect immunocompromised individuals who are at the highest risk of severe COVID-19 disease,” said Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna. “It is promising to see recent studies demonstrating that a third dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine may enhance immune response in immunocompromised populations. We will continue to generate data on protection against SARS-CoV-2 variants and we remain committed to helping to end the COVID-19 pandemic with our mRNA vaccine.” Given all of this, will you consider adding MRNA stock to your portfolio?
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Pfizer Inc.
Pfizer is a pharmaceutical giant with headquarters in New York City. The company has a wide range of drugs and therapies that cover many medical segments. It focuses on the fields of oncology and rare diseases. Also, it was the first company to receive FDA emergency use authorization for its coronavirus vaccine that was jointly created with BioNTech SE (NASDAQ: BNTX). PFE stock currently trades at $50.41 as of 10:51 a.m. ET and is up by over 30% in the past year.
On August 16, 2021, the company announced that it has submitted Phase 1 data to the FDA to support the evaluation of a third or booster shot of its coronavirus vaccine. Given how vaccination is still the most effective means of preventing infection, the continuing threat of the Delta variant could warrant a booster shot. Furthermore, the company says that its data suggests a third dose of its vaccine will elicit antibody levels that significantly exceed those seen after the two-dose primary schedule.
In late July, the company also reported strong second-quarter financials. Diving in, the company posted a revenue of $19 billion, reflecting 86% operational growth. Its vaccines segment delivered a huge chunk of this revenue, at $9.23 billion compared to $1.25 billion from a year ago. Pfizer says that more than 1 billion doses of its vaccine have been delivered globally, supporting this surge in revenue growth. The company also raised its full-year 2021 guidance for revenue to a top-line of $80 billion. With that being said, will you consider buying PFE stock right now?
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Clover Health Investments Corporation
Last but not least, we will be taking a look at the Clover Health Investments Corporation. In brief, Clover is a major player in the U.S. health care service provider industry today. For the most part, it operates as a “next-generation Medicare Advantage insurer”. Through its proprietary flagship software platform, the Clover Assistant, Clover serves both patients and physicians. Namely, Clover provides America’s seniors access to affordable and comprehensive health care plans. While doing so, it also empowers health care professionals with data-driven and actionable insights.
With coronavirus concerns on the rise again I could see demand for Clover’s services follow suit. As CLOV stock currently trades at $8.33 as of 10:52 a.m. ET, could it have more room to grow because of all this? Well, for one thing, Clover does not appear to be sitting idly by on the operational front. Just this month, the company has made two significant moves. As of August 3, Clover now operates in Florida thanks to a collaboration with ValueH, a Value-Based Care member organization. Essentially, ValueH’s network is now helping clover build its presence in the state.
Following that, Clover’s software platform now fully supports Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) and related Electronic Health Records (EHR). Simply put, this move would allow the Clover Assistant to integrate with a wider variety of health care records systems. This would include cloud platforms with centralized FHIR storage which include Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. As Clover continues to rapidly expand its market reach and services, will you be keeping an eye on CLOV stock?
