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Strategies & Market Trends : Value Investing -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: E_K_S who wrote (40422)	12/6/2010 12:50:26 PM
From: Paul Senior	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 78745

EKS, I don't have any particular target amount for healthcare for my portfolios. I guess I'm at at about 7-8% overall with a couple dozen healthcare stocks distributed over several portfolios. I have BMY, JNJ. The other really big pharma's I've been staying away from. I can't figure patent expiry affects vs. pipeline prospects. I continue to hold COV, ABT, GILD, BDX, DGX SIAL -- they're big and have drugs, but I don't consider them big pharma stocks in the category of MRK, PFE, AZN, BMY, etc. Among other healthcare stocks discussed here, I still hold varying amounts of ENZN FRX CYPB CAH MCK HUM AMSG MPW LTUS.OB BLUD PLX APT CBST and others.

To: E_K_S who wrote (40422)	12/6/2010 4:22:52 PM
From: gcrispin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 78745

I recently posted my thoughts on Merck as it is a stock I'm watching for an entry point due to tax selling. There are a number of things I like about it, principally the dividend. Message 27005714 I think it should be mentioned that Roche is also working on a CETP inhibitor. The results of the Phase III trial will be released before Merck trial is completed. roche.com Here are a couple of article that provide color to the question of efficacy for CETP inhibitors. healthcentral.com blogs.nejm.org

To: E_K_S who wrote (40422)	12/8/2010 4:34:41 PM
From: Grantcw	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 78745

Ok, E_K_S, I'm going to pitch a potential value play in biotechs to a fellow covered call player. AVNR just got their drug approved and are lining up a roll-out. I'm slightly down on some shares I bought a month ago, but now I feel like there are some value risk/reward characteristics including: 1) The Current price is $3.8 which is below a share offering in November of $4.4 which followed the drug approval. 2) The projected sales of the drug seem to make this a value if they can achieve some success. What I really like though from a risk/reward perspective is I bought some more shares today at 3.76 and wrote March $4 Calls at 0.50. That's a good return in 3 months if shares stay here or go up a bit, and good defensive positioning if we head down. Thoughts? Thanks, cwillyg