4 Health Care Stocks For Your Mid-March Watchlist
With the stock market continuing to tread water, many investors are looking for safer investments to fend off the volatility. While we may not be in a bear market as far as the main indices are concerned, it’s never a bad idea to search for stocks that tend to perform well regardless of the performance of the broader market. Notably, health care is one of the more resilient sectors with stabler earnings. After all, health care is what everyone needs, or will need at some point in their lifetime. And such demand will create big opportunities for investors. Therefore, I wouldn’t be surprised if investors are putting up a list of top health care stocks to buy in the stock market today.
Just yesterday, Pfizer’s (NYSE: PFE) CEO said that the company is submitting data to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) on the need for a fourth dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. While the vaccine Pfizer is currently producing with BioNTech (NASDAQ: BNTX) still protects against severe disease, the drugmaker now believes that a fourth dose will be necessary to ward off infections. As such, this could prove to be another windfall for vaccine-producing companies to reap, which by extension, would be beneficial to shareholders. If you are keen on the industry, check out these top health care stocks in the stock market today.
Health Care Stocks To Watch [Or Avoid] This Week
- Moderna Inc. (NASDAQ: MRNA)
- AstraZeneca plc (NASDAQ: AZN)
- LumiraDx Ltd (NASDAQ: LMDX)
- Valneva SE ADR (NASDAQ: VALN)
Moderna
Starting off our list, we have Moderna. In brief, it is a biotech company with a diverse pipeline of vaccines and therapeutics. For the most part, the company mainly specializes in mRNA and lipid nanoparticle formulation. Hence, it focuses on creating transformative medicines based on messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA). Moderna also has an integrated manufacturing plant that allows for both clinical and commercial production at scale. Over the past week, MRNA stock has been up by about 20%.
Just yesterday, the biotech firm announced that it has started its Phase 1 clinical trial of its experimental HIV vaccine. The vaccine will tap upon the same mRNA technology that was used in its Covid-19 vaccines. As it stands, there is no available vaccine for HIV. Therefore, I could see why this exciting news may be grabbing the attention of investors.
Besides that, Moderna plans to build upon the success of its Covid-19 vaccines into more products including an RSV vaccine, flu shot, and even cancer treatments using the breakthrough mRNA technology. Given the exciting prospects of Moderna, would you be investing in MRNA stock?
[Read More] Best Oil Stocks To Buy Today? 4 For Your Watchlist
AstraZeneca
Another top health care company to watch is AstraZeneca. The company primarily focuses on three main therapy areas, Oncology, Cardiovascular & Metabolic Disease, and Respiratory. It is also selectively active in the areas of autoimmunity, neuroscience, and infection. Similar to other vaccine companies, AstraZeneca plays a vital role in providing coronavirus vaccines around the globe. Over the past year, AZN stock has risen by over 20%.
The FDA yesterday gave the green light for AstraZeneca’s and Merck’s (NYSE: MRK) Lynparza (Olaparib). Notably, the FDA approved the use of the drug for people with a genetic form of early breast cancer. Evidently, this approval could spur the greater use of DNA testing in diagnosing and treating the disease.
Currently, Olaparib is used to treat metastatic breast cancer with BRCA gene mutations. However, thanks to the approval, the drug can now be used at earlier stages of the disease. Aside from that, the approval will also help solidify Lynparza’s lead as the top-selling PARP inhibitor with a first-of-its-kind FDA approval. Given the approval of Olaparib, will you be watching AZN stock?
[Read More] Stock Market Today: Dow Jones, S&P 500 Opens Higher As Oil Prices Fall; Gitlab (GTLB) Up On Earnings Beat
LumiraDx
LumiraDx is a next-generation point of care diagnostics company. It focuses on transforming community-based health care by providing critical diagnostic information to health care providers at the point of need, thereby enabling more informed medical decisions to improve health outcomes while lowering costs. Last week, the company announced its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2021.
Jumping in, LumiraDX brought in $421.4 million in revenue for the full year, a big increase compared to $139.2 million in 2020. The health care company attributes this revenue growth to the pandemic which accelerated its long-term growth strategy. Other than that, it also managed to ship 21,000 of its Platform instruments to customers. Sales at the start of this year look rather promising as well, with an estimated 4,000 instruments to be shipped this first quarter.
CEO Ron Zwanziger added, “The positive experience and validation of the microfluidic technology of our Platform by health systems, emergency rooms, pharmacy chains and other health care providers is expanding market adoption and use cases for fast, high sensitivity, convenient and connected diagnostic test results.” With its platform seeing strong sales figures, does LMDX stock earn a spot on your watchlist?
[Read More] Top Stock Market News For Today March 15, 2022
Valneva
Valneva is a biotech company that develops prophylactic vaccines for infectious diseases. In fact, it currently has several vaccines in development, including unique vaccines against Lyme disease, coronavirus, and chikungunya. The company’s portfolio also includes two commercial vaccines for travelers. The company also has approximately 700 employees across six countries. Over the past year, VALN stock has risen by over 28%. Last week, the company announced the successful completion of the Phase 3 pivotal trial of its single-shot chikungunya vaccine candidate, VLA1553.
The trial, which enrolled 4,115 adults aged 18 years and above, met all primary and secondary endpoints. Subsequently, the final analysis confirmed a very high level of seroprotection. Namely, 98.9% of candidates achieved protective levels of chikungunya virus-neutralizing antibodies within a month after receiving a single vaccination.
On top of that, its immunity effects were well maintained over time, with 96.3% of the participants showing protective neutralizing antibodies after 6 months since being vaccinated. Valneva now expects to commence the pre-submission process with the FDA in the second quarter of 2022. Taking this achievement into consideration, would you be keen on VALN stock?
If you enjoyed this article and you’re interested in learning how to trade so you can have the best chance to profit consistently then you need to checkout this YouTube channel. CLICK HERE RIGHT NOW!!
