Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, today's IBD 50 Stocks to Watch pick, returns to the list of top-performing stocks in both fundamentals and price action. This hot stock has been exhibiting fairly tight action on the chart and may be poised to clear a new cup base.
The pharmaceutical stock is trading within a narrow range. Its rising 200-day moving average is about to converge with the 50-day moving average. The stock doesn't appear to want to go much lower.
Regeneron stock currently has a 673.96 buy point from a flat base within, or next to, a larger consolidation. A downward-sloping trendline from the December high offers an aggressive entry.
Its shares gained 1% Thursday.
Medical stocks such as Regeneron may be quasi-safe havens. Health care spending is relatively insulated from inflation and from the geopolitical mess. Russia continues its attack on Ukraine as Western countries slap more and more sanctions on Russia.
Regeneron stock has a 92 Composite Rating, an EPS Rating of 99, and a rising Relative Strength Rating of 86. According to IBD Stock Checkup, REGN is ranked No. 7 within its Medical-Biotech group, which is ranked No. 138 out of 197 industry groups that IBD tracks.
Hot Stock Atop Other Lists As Well
The Tarrytown, N.Y.-based company earned $23.72 per share during the fourth quarter, and FactSet analysts expect it to earn $9.67 per share in the first quarter of 2022 on sales of $2.7 billion.
Regeneron also makes this week's list of Warren Buffett stocks, created by MarketSmith. To make the list of Warren Buffett stocks, each stock must meet a wide range of criteria, including: be in the top 25% of all stocks in terms of five-year annual EPS growth rate, have 15% or greater sustainable earnings growth, and have a 12% or better five-year average return on equity. Regeneron meets or exceeds all of those measures.
Also, over the past month Regeneron had mixed reports on the developmental drug side.
Regeneron's Industry Rivals
On one hand, rival drugmaker Kodiak Sciences received a setback in efforts to make a competitive drug to rival Regeneron's hugely popular eye drug, Eylea. Meanwhile, earlier this month Intellia Therapeutics, Regeneron's Partner in using CRISPR gene editing, received a blow when the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office said its patent application would be delayed because of competitive questions.
Finally, the stock has a low C- on Accumulation/Distribution Rating. This tracks the relative degree of institutional buying and selling over the past 13 weeks. Ideally, we'd like to see this rating to improve. Nonetheless, it continues to have strong institutional buying as demonstrated by the number of funds owning the stock: 2,743 funds at the end of 2021 vs. 2363 at the end of 2020.
The largest funds holding shares of the stock on Jan. 31 were all A rated funds: Vanguard Total Stock Market (VTSMX), Vanguard 500 Index (VFIAX) and Fidelity Contrafund (FCNTX).
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