Promising industry prospects and company quality are two components that are vital to successful long-term investing. If an industry isn't able to steadily grow, stocks in that industry likely won't either. And quality is important because below-average stocks in fast-growing industries often aren't able to capitalize on that expansion.
Thanks to a growing and aging world population, it's estimated that the global pharmaceutical industry will grow at a 5.7% annual clip from $1.1 trillion in 2022 to $1.4 trillion by 2026. Here are two top-notch, cheaply valued pharma stocks to consider buying now.
1. Amgen
The first pharma stock to think about purchasing right now is Amgen (AMGN -0.19%). With a $136 billion market capitalization, Amgen is the 11th-largest pharma stock in the world.
Investors would expect a company of this size to possess both an enviable commercialized drug portfolio and drug pipeline. And Amgen doesn't disappoint.
The company has over two-dozen drugs in its portfolio. And Amgen's blockbuster drug count grew from seven in 2020 to 10 in 2021. Double-digit net revenue growth in 2021 led cholesterol drug Repatha, the blood-platelet boosting drug Nplate, and biosimilar cancer drug Mvasi to each become blockbusters for Amgen.
This helped the company's total revenue grow 2% year over year to $26 billion in 2021. Along with its aggressive share repurchase program, this propelled Amgen's non-GAAP (adjusted) diluted earnings per share (EPS) 6.4% higher to $17.10 for 2021.
Amgen boasts a drug pipeline of 40 different compounds at various levels of clinical development. This should help to fuel growth going forward. And it explains why analysts anticipate that Amgen will deliver 7.1% annual earnings growth to its shareholders through the next five years.
Better yet, the stock's dividend payout ratio was just 41.2% in 2021. This allows Amgen to retain the capital necessary to fund research collaborations with other companies, execute acquisitions, repurchase shares, and repay debt to drive its adjusted diluted EPS upward.
With such a manageable dividend payout ratio and high-single-digit annual earnings growth potential, the dividend should at least grow in line with earnings. Paired with Amgen's market-beating 3.1% dividend yield, this is a nice mix of starting income and growth.
Best of all, Amgen appears to be trading at a reasonably attractive valuation. The stock's trailing 12-month (TTM) dividend yield of 2.9% is moderately higher than its 10-year median TTM yield of 2.4%. This makes Amgen a smart dividend stock to buy.
Image source: Getty Images.
2. Novartis
The second pharma stock to buy now is Switzerland-based Novartis (NVS 1.10%). Its $220 billion market cap makes it the fifth-largest pharma stock in the world.
With a portfolio of 14 commercialized drugs that are blockbusters, Novartis unsurprisingly has one of the best drug portfolios on the planet.
Novartis is also a highly diversified pharma company. Its top-selling drug known as Cosentyx (used to treat autoimmune diseases like psoriatic arthritis and psoriasis) contributed to $4.7 billion or just 9.1% of the company's total revenue in 2021.
As a result of the stock's robust commercialized drug portfolio, Novartis grew its net sales by 6.1% in 2021 to $51.6 billion. The company's higher net sales base also lifted its core EPS 8.8% higher to $6.29 in 2021.
Due to the stock's drug pipeline of more than 150 projects, analysts are predicting that Novartis will post 5.1% annual earnings growth over the next five years.
And the stock looks to be fairly valued at this time. That's because Novartis' TTM price-to-free-cash-flow ratio of 16.7 is slightly below its 10-year median of 17.3. Novartis' market-crushing 3.6% dividend yield, decent growth profile, and modest valuation should lead to solid total returns in the future, which makes the stock a compelling buy for income investors.
