5 Healthcare Stocks Kahn Brothers Is Bullish On

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE)

– Shares Owned by Kahn Brothers (as of September 30): 919,757

– Value of Kahn Brothers’ Holding (as of September 30): $31.15 million

Kahn Brothers sold 237,109 shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) in the third quarter, ending the period with 919,757 shares of the company. The New York-based pharmaceutical giant recently reported its third quarter earnings, which fell short of analysts’ expectations. The company earned $0.61 per share on $13.05 billion in revenue, while analysts had projected EPS of $0.62 on $13.05 billion in revenue. Pfizer also recently announced the end of its development of bococizumab, which had been intended to help lower cholesterol. The company also trimmed the upper-end of its 2016 adjusted earnings forecast to $2.43 from $2.48 per share, while retaining the lower end at $2.38. The stock is down by some 6.8% so far this year. Out of 749 hedge funds in our database which filed 13Fs for the June 30 reporting period, 94 were long Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) at the end of the second quarter, down from 119 funds a quarter earlier.

Hologic, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOLX)

– Shares Owned by Kahn Brothers (as of September 30): 1.23 million

– Value of Kahn Brothers’ Holding (as of September 30): $47.94 million

Kahn Brothers sold off 3% of its position in Hologic, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOLX) during the third quarter, retaining a $47.94 million position in the company. The Massachusetts-based diagnostics and medical equipment company reported fiscal fourth-quarter EPS of $0.52 on $726.8 million in revenue, better than the expected EPS of $0.50 and expected revenue of $721.66 million. Hologic, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOLX) expects to earn between $0.50 and $0.51 per share in the first quarter of its fiscal year 2017, in-line with the consensus estimate of $0.51. The stock is flat so far in 2016. As of the end of the third quarter, Peter Algert and Kevin Coldiron’s Algert Coldiron Investors reported ownership of 40,016 shares of Hologic.

Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK)

– Shares Owned by Kahn Brothers (as of September 30): 957,991

– Value of Kahn Brothers’ Holding (as of September 30): $59.79 million

Lastly, Kahn Brothers held 957,991 shares of New Jersey-based pharmaceutical company Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) at the end of the third quarter, with it ranking as its top healthcare pick and top stock pick overall. Merck’s lung cancer drug Keytruda recently got an approval from the FDA, catapulting the company’s stock to new heights. Keytruda is the first chemo-free treatment in the market for lung cancer. Merck earned $1.07 per share on $10.5 billion in revenue in the third quarter, above analysts’ forecast of $0.99 in EPS on $10.18 billion in revenue. The company expects fiscal 2017 EPS of between $3.71 and $3.78, versus the consensus of $3.75, while full year 2017 revenue is expected to come in between $39.7 billion and $40.2 billion, versus the consensus of $39.78 billion. The stock is up by over 13% year-to-date. Fisher Asset Management owns 6.81 million shares of Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) as of the end of the third quarter.

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