10 Health Care Companies You Can Be Proud to Own

Proud to Own Process™

At Faith-Based Investor, our clients want us to find companies they can be “Proud to Own™”.  This means we want to invest in companies that make a difference in this world.  Our morally conscious investors have told us they wish to:

1. Avoid investing in companies that violate their faith and values
2. Invest in companies that complement their faith and values.

How does this play out in real life? 

Well take for example the health care sector.  One of the top issues for morally conscious investors is abortion.  After interviewing hundreds of investors over the years, I have found that these investors also wish to avoid investing in companies conducting embryonic stem cell research and those companies donating large sums of money to Planned Parenthood. To find a list of those companies you can go to Life Decisions International.  So this gives us the criteria of what we wish to avoid.

Now to find companies that complement our clients’ faith and values, we have found that our investors are looking for companies creating value in society.  They are companies saving lives, promoting life, and those who are finding cures for the many diseases man faces.

When we conduct research, we look not only at the moral characteristics of the company we also want to do a very thorough financial analysis.  We find that this one-two punch of moral and financial screening truly helps us uncover some of the best investment opportunities on the planet. In order to evaluate the financial side, we look at such characteristics as:

• Low debt
• Strong management teams
• Robust earnings
• Product or services in high demand
• Competitive advantage in their industry
• Low P/E compared to its competition

Health Care – Strong Demand for the Future!

We have become much more defensive in 2011 as we see consumers get pinched with higher gas and food prices.  We believe defensive industries like utilities, energy, consumer staples, and health care are prime places to look for safety in these volatile times.  With the aging population and baby boomers retiring, we don’t think the future demand for health care is going anywhere but up, up, and up.

After conducting our research, here are ten companies on our radar screen that have met both our moral and financial criteria:

1. Bio-Reference  BRLI: Bio-Reference Laboratories, Inc. provides clinical laboratory testing services primarily in the greater New York metropolitan area. It offers various chemical diagnostic tests, including blood and urine analysis, blood chemistry, hematology services, serology, radioimmuno analysis, toxicology, pap smears, tissue pathology, and other tissue analysis. The company also operates a clinical knowledge management service unit, which uses customer data from laboratory results, pharmaceutical data, claims data, and other data sources to provide administrative and clinical decision support systems.

2. Ensign Group Inc ENSG:  The Ensign Group, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides nursing and rehabilitative care services in California, Arizona, Texas, Washington, Utah, Colorado, and Idaho. The company offers nursing and assisted living services; physical, occupational, and speech therapies; and other rehabilitative and healthcare services for long-term residents and short-stay rehabilitation patients.

3. Express Script ESRX:  Express Scripts, Inc. provides a range of pharmacy benefit management (PBM) services in North America. The company’s PBM services include retail network pharmacy management and retail drug card programs; home delivery pharmacy services; specialty pharmacy services; patient care contact centers; benefit plan design and consultation; drug formulary management; compliance and therapy management programs; information reporting and analysis programs; rebate programs, electronic claims processing, and drug utilization review; consumer health and drug information; bio-pharma services, including reimbursement and customized logistics solutions; medication therapy and safety through pharmacogenomics; and assistance programs for low-income patients.

4. Hi-Tech Pharm. HITK:  Hi-Tech Pharmacal Co., Inc. develops, manufactures, markets, and sells generic, prescription, over-the-counter (OTC), and nutritional products in liquid and semisolid dosage forms in the United States. It produces a range of products for various disease states, including asthma, bronchial disorders, dermatological disorders, allergies, pain, stomach, oral care, neurological disorders, glaucoma, and other conditions.

5. Abbott Laboratories ABT:  Abbott Laboratories engages in the discovery, development, manufacture, and sale of health care products worldwide. It operates in four segments: Pharmaceutical Products, Diagnostic Products, Nutritional Products, and Vascular Products. The Pharmaceutical Products segment offers adult and pediatric pharmaceuticals for rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, psoriasis, Crohn's disease, dyslipidemia, HIV infection, hypothyroidism, advanced prostate cancer, endometriosis and central precocious puberty, anemia, obesity, epilepsy and bipolar disorder, migraines, secondary hyperparathyroidism, gastroesophageal reflux disease, duodenal and gastric ulcers, and erosive esophagitis, as well as provides anesthesia products and anti-infectives.

6. Neogen Corp NEOG: Neogen Corporation, through its subsidiaries, engages in the development, manufacture, and sale of various products for food safety testing and animal health applications. It operates in two segments, Food Safety and Animal Safety. The Food Safety segment primarily produces and markets diagnostic test kits and complementary products that detect dangerous and/or unintended substances in human food and animal feed, such as foodborne pathogens, spoilage organisms, natural toxins, food allergens, genetic modifications, ruminant by-products, drug residues, pesticide residues, and general sanitation concerns. Its food safety products also comprise bioluminescence-based diagnostic technology.

7. Stryker Corp SYK: Stryker Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a medical technology company worldwide. The company operates in two segments, Orthopaedic Implants and MedSurg Equipment. The Orthopedic Implants segment provides orthopaedic reconstructive, trauma, craniomaxillofacial, and spinal implant systems and related products; bone cement; and the bone growth factor OP-1.

8. Thoratec Lab. THOR: Thoratec Corporation develops, manufactures, and markets proprietary medical devices used for circulatory support. It operates in two divisions, Cardiovascular and International Technidyne Corporation (ITC). Cardiovascular division offers medical devices used for mechanical circulatory support (MCS).

9. Zalicus Inc ZLCS: Zalicus Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, engages in the development of drug candidates focusing on the treatment of pain and inflammation. The company’s clinical and preclinical product candidates for pain, inflammation, and other central nervous system disorders include Synavive (CRx-102), a novel dissociated glucocorticoid product candidate, which has completed Phase II clinical trials in subjects with knee osteoarthritis, to treat immuno-inflammatory disorders; Prednisporin (FOV1101), a topical ophthalmic drug candidate containing low doses of the glucocorticoid prednisolone acetate and the immunosuppressant cyclosporine A; N-type and T-type calcium channel blockers for the treatment of chronic pain; and CRx-601, a formulation of carbidopa and levodopa for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.

10. Covidien Plc COV: Covidien plc develops, manufactures, and sells healthcare products for use in clinical and home settings in the United States and internationally. The company’s Medical Devices segment provides endomechanical instruments, which include laparoscopic instruments and surgical staplers; soft tissue repair products, such as sutures, mesh, biosurgery products, and hernia mechanical devices; and energy devices, including vessel sealing, electrosurgical, and ablation products and related capital equipment.

Source for company profiles: Yahoo Finance