Growth of mega-blockbuster Plavix is helping Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) drive EPS growth up near 16% in 2008. Patent expirations loom very large in Bristol's future starting in 2011 when the Plavix patent expires.That being said, the company does have an attractive mid-to-late-stage pipeline, and the company has been dramatically working to reduce costs and shed less profitable and non-core businesses. We believe the company is an attractive take-over candidate at this level for a larger pharma name such as Sanofi (SNY) or Pfizer (PFE). EPS growth rate is near the top of bigpharma. We expect the shares to trade up near $27.We expect earnings growth to remain very strong through 2011 from a combination of mid-to-high single digit sales growth and operating margin improvement. The results should be operating margins 500 basis points wider in 2011 relative to 2008. We currently model ...

Reading between the lines is key to successful stock market investing today, says Andrew Snyder. Pfizer’s (NYSE:PFE) announcement that it is looking to acquire rival companies in 2009 signals that organic growth will be hard to come by. And that’s bad news for shareholders. Andrew says savvy investors can bet against the company by short selling or buying put options.

This from Today’s Financial News:

If you want to make money in today’s market with its super-efficient flow of information, you need advanced insight. Remember, this is not your father’s buy-and-hold stock market.

Sure, crunching a few ratios and digging into a company’s balance sheet and income statement will give you a strong head start, but if you want to truly excel, you have to understand the psychological side of Wall Street.

For a perfect example, check out the headlines surrounding Pfizer (NYSE:PFE). The company went out of its way

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Endo Pharmaceuticals (ENDP) to Acquire Indevus Pharmaceuticals (IDEV)In the first biotech deal of 2009, Endo Pharmaceuticals (ENDP) announced it has signed a definitive merger agreement with Indevus Pharmaceuticals (IDEV), whereby Endo will acquire 100% of the outstanding shares of Indevus for $370 million, or $4.50 per share, in upfront cash, with another potential $267 million, or $3.00 per share, in future consideration.The future potential cash to Indevus shareholders will come in the form of two contingent rights, one in the form of a $2.00 per share payment for the approval of Nebido, and the second $1.00 per share payment for the approval of octreotide implant.Indevus is currently trading at $5.24 per share, a 70% increase from the close yesterday. On December 26, 2008, we initiated coverage of Indevus at $2.71 per share with a Buy rating and $6.00 price ...

Bristol-Myers Squibb, Inc. (BMY) remains one of our top-picks in the pharmaceutical industry for 2009. We like Bristol for a number of reasons, including the company's solid financial position, a deep pipeline with significant biologic exposure, and turnaround/acquisition potential.Bristol also offers a big dividend of $1.24 per share (recently confirmed Thursday), which yields 5.5%. The company has the lowest exposure to foreign exchange translation among its U.S. peers, and is expected to grow the bottom-line by approximately 11% CAGR [compound annual growth rate] through 2012.Oh, by the way, Bristol is sitting on over $8 billion in cash, and just announced today they will be spinning off the Mead Johnson Nutritional business to shareholders in 2009. The Mead Johnson IPO is expected to fetch another $1 billion in cash for Bristol.  By the end of the first quarter 2009, Bristol could be sitting on nearly ...

This week, Pfizer announced that it would not be raising its dividend for the first time in 42 years. brbrLook at the stock’s current yield and you’ll see why. Heck, the very fact that they’re going to maintain that payment is pretty good, don’t you think? brbrSure, they could have tossed a penny onto the payment just to keep the record intact, but I’m not going to be too hard on them with everything going on in the markets.brbrSo am I still positive on the company? Yes.brbr

Abbott Labs (ABT) is a consistent performer with diversified healthcare operations, including pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, medical nutrition products, and medical devices/stents. ABT is back to the lower end of its trading range near 50 bucks, presenting an excellent entry point with a 2.8% dividend yield and forward PE of about 14X. Celgene (CELG) is also trading at the low end of its trading range around 50 bucks as a large-cap growth stock focused on cancer biotech products and research with an estimated PEG ratio below one. China Medical (CMED) is trading near its IPO levels of August 2005 despite excellent growth prospects and is a buy below 20 bucks with a dividend yield of 2.5% and market cap of $540M as uncertainty over a $345M acquisition has spooked some investors, sending the stock down sharply by over 50% in the past three ...

The accompanying table [click to enlarge or download] presents the top five rated companies with market caps of at least $250M from each of the 10 new healthcare indexes developed by ETF Innovators [ETFI] from a database of about 500 companies worldwide. The ETFI Global Healthcare Sector PerformIdex is a dynamic, semi-active index with monthly updates which consists of the 50 top-rated companies on an equal weight basis from each of the 10 healthcare indexes listed below and represents an alternative strategy to existing health composite ETFs -- which tend to have highly correlated returns and over-weight exposure to the same widely held companies such as Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Pfizer (PFE), Novartis (NVS), Abbott Labs (ABT), Merck (MRK), and Amgen (AMGN). 1.) ...

It seems like the wrong time to be buying stocks right now, considering that every day the market hits a new bottom. On Thursday, markets closed at their lowest point in nearly six years, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average finishing the day at 7,552.29. And its not just stocks that are hurting; oil is below $50 a barrel and 30-day Treasury bonds are yielding less than 1% as investors demand safe havens for their money…its ugly on Wall Street, and people’s savings on Main Street have felt the pain.

But smart investors know that when the market looks bleak, opportunity abounds. Plummeting stock prices means that your existing holdings are dragging, but it also means those stocks you’ve been watching for months are ripe for the picking. But which ones to hone in on, when it seems like every stock on the market

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China Industrial Waste Management, Inc. (CIWM) released its 3rd Quarter 2008 financial results today for the period ending September 30, 2008. Among the highlights, total revenues increased by $3,434,442 or 53 % for the nine months ended September 30, 2008 as compared to the nine months ended September 30, 2007. Revenues for the three months ended September 30, 2008 increased by $870,538 or 37 % over the comparable period in 2007. CIWM said the gain in revenues was because of an increase in its customer base and increased demand for its services among its existing clients along with a growing sales network for the company’s recycled products.

Although the Summer Olympics hurt business, the company says the impact was short and that its prospects continue to improve. “We continu[e] to experience positive momentum in all aspects of our business,” said Jinqing Dong, Chairman and CEO. “Our

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ETFI Global Healthcare Sector PerformIdex The accompanying table presents the top six rated companies with market caps of at least $250 million (USD) from each of the eight ETFI healthcare indexes (which include a database of about 320 companies) as equally-weighted components in the ETFI Global Healthcare Sector PerformIdex of 48 companies. 1.) ETFI Global Hospitals 2.) ETFI New Drug Regulatory Catalyst 3.) ETFI Global AnimalBiz 4.) ETFI Health Benefit Providers 5.) ETFI Cosmetic & Reconstructive Medicine 6.) ETFI Global Generic Drugs 7.) ETFI Global Health Information Technology 8.) ETFI Preventive Medicine This index and new ETF idea is designed to provide investors with more diversified exposure in terms of geography, market cap range, ...