Five Healthcare Stocks Added to HealthInvest Partners’ Portfolio in Q1

INC Research Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:INCR)

– Number of shares held by HealthInvest Partners as of March 31: 324,270

– Value of HealthInvest’s holding as of March 31: $13.36 Million

INC Research Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:INCR) was another addition to HealthInvest’s equity portfolio during the first quarter of 2016. The healthcare-focused investment firm owned 324,270 shares at the end of March, which were worth $13.36 million. The contract research organization (CRO) that solely provides clinical development services for the biopharmaceutical and medical device industries has seen its market value gain 62% in the past 52 weeks. According to the investor letter, HealthInvest believes that “outsourcing of clinical development is a strong trend which will support future volumes for INCR”. Moreover, the Stockholm-based firm says that INC Research’s shares are “relatively inexpensive” considering that they trade “around 12x free cash flow”. A fresh article posted by Bloomberg says that Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings (NYSE:LH) is interested in acquiring INC Research Holdings, as the two parties have already discussed a possible deal. Reportedly, the health care diagnostics giant is seeking to strengthen its dominant position in the U.S. diagnostics industry. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Advisors LLC had 1.19 million shares of INC Research Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:INCR) in its equity portfolio at the end of 2015.

Taro Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE:TARO)

– Number of shares held by HealthInvest Partners as of March 31: 94,005

– Value of HealthInvest’s holding as of March 31: $13.47 Million

HealthInvest Partners purchased a new stake of 94,005 shares in Taro Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE:TARO) during the January-to-March quarter, aggregately valued at $13.47 million on March 31. The quarter-end stake accounted for 6.31% of the fund’s equity portfolio. Tara Pharmaceutical is a science-based pharmaceutical company that has a debt-free balance sheet. The company paid-off its remaining debt of $5.9 million during the quarter that ended December 31. Tara’s net sales for the nine months ended December 31 reached $685.7 million, which represented an increase of 10.8% year-on-year. Meanwhile, net income for the nine-month period was $426.0 million, up from $332.0 million reported for the same period of the prior year. The shares of the pharmaceutical company are currently trading 10.7-times expected earnings, significantly below the forward P/E ratio of 15.3 for the healthcare sector. Just recently, the company’s Board also approved a $250 million share repurchase authorization, which may lead to an even more attractive P/E multiple. Shares of Taro Pharmaceutical are down by 3% year-to-date. Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies owned 451,200 shares of Taro Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE:TARO) at the end of 2015.

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