Pharmaceutical stocks along with technology stocks have been the trending sectors for the year 2020. It was indeed a difficult year for most industries as the pandemic took its toll on almost every aspect of the global economy. Pharmaceutical and healthcare stocks are generally considered to be defensive plays that act as safe refuge during a major crisis. If you believe that pharmaceutical stocks are looking promising, then you may want to consider Incyte Corporation and Johnson & Johnson. Those two stocks are the ones that stayed in the green over the past year. More on that later.
Incyte Reports A Drop In Earnings But A Rise In Revenues For Q32020
Incyte Corporation reported its third-quarter 2020 earnings in early November of 2020. Revenue from products rose from $453 million in Q32019 to $522 million in Q32020. Revenues from royalty grew substantially as well from $80 million in the third quarter of 2019 to $98 million in the third quarter of 2020. However, net income per share dropped significantly from $0.59 per share to a loss of $0.07. The drop was mainly attributable to a jump in research and development expenses as well as unrealized losses from long term investments.
Incyte CEO Herve Hoppenot commented, “Jakafi sales grew 13% year-over-year to reach $488 million with growth seen across all 3 indications. Jakavi and Olumiant royalties grew 17% and32%, respectively, totaling nearly $100 million in revenues for the quarter. There is significant momentum in the first weeks of launch of Monjuviin the U.S., and I am pleased to say that Pemazyre, which was launched at the end of April, has outperformed our initial expectations.”
Top Pharmaceutical Stocks To Buy
The price performance of Incyte Corporation and Johnson and Johnson stands out because those two are the pharmaceutical companies that have risen in the past year. Most other big names are down for the year 2020. Incyte Corporation is up 11.7% while Johnson and Johnson is up 8.6%.
