Even though the stock market is facing abundant volatility at the moment, established businesses with a clear path forward to future growth can add value and returns to your portfolio again and again over the years.
If you're looking to add more stocks to your portfolio right now, here are three top healthcare stocks to consider when formulating your list of long-term buys.
1. Vertex Pharmaceuticals
Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX 0.10%) has a near monopoly over the multibillion-dollar cystic fibrosis treatment industry with its portfolio of medicines. These medicines, known as CFTR modulators, work to help the CFTR protein function as intended. In a patient with cystic fibrosis, the CFTR gene becomes mutated, which means this protein is not able to function normally.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals sells the only approved CFTR modulators currently on the market. Its top-selling drug is Trikafta, a drug that on its own is approved to treat more than 90% of all individuals with cystic fibrosis in the U.S.
However, Vertex Pharmaceuticals isn't relying on its portfolio of cystic fibrosis medicines alone to drive future growth. The company is actively building out its pipeline with the aim of expanding its share of the $120 billion rare disease drug market.
Its pipeline includes candidates targeting rare genetic disorders like Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (which can lead to severe lung and liver problems) and APOL1-mediated kidney disease, as well as more common conditions like Type 1 diabetes.
The past decade has seen Vertex Pharmaceuticals not only increase its top line by over 200% but supercharge its bottom-line growth to the tune of nearly 800%. Investors have responded in kind, and the stock has delivered a total return of 321% in the past decade. Its strong position in the cystic fibrosis market, continued profitability, and long-term potential targeting rare and underserved disease areas, are all reasons for investors to take a second look at this top healthcare stock.
2. Teladoc
You're not alone if you've eyed Teladoc's (TDOC 0.30%) performance over the last year with a mixture of disappointment and discouragement. As a shareholder, watching the stock plummet along with the broader decline in growth-oriented businesses hasn't been a pretty sight. That, coupled with the company's massive write-downs earlier this year, which led to ballooning net losses in the first two quarters, have understandably made many investors shy away.
However, I still believe in Teladoc's long-term potential as a business and the power of the industry in which it operates and maintains a significant footprint. While prolonged periods of lockdown and the ease of telehealth solutions certainly spurred consumers' embrace of this technology in that period, there are durable factors driving demand for Teladoc's platform and services over the long term.
There are many reasons patients prefer telehealth to in-person visits for a wide range of non-emergency medical needs, including age, physical proximity to a high-quality healthcare provider, or simply the convenience factor. Teladoc's accessibility, affordability (visits start at just $75 for a general medical visit even if the patient doesn't have insurance), and the wide range of healthcare concerns its platform covers -- from diabetes care to primary care to chronic care to mental healthcare -- make it a go-to for millions of providers and patients around the world.
The global telehealth space presents a massive and ever-growing addressable market for an established name like Teladoc. This market is valued at around $84 billion as of 2022. As for Teladoc's financial woes, these could be showing signs of abating. The most recent quarter saw its revenue jump 17% year over year, while it reported adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) of around $51 million. While the company is still operating at a net loss, this decreased to $73 million. For context, its second-quarter net loss was a whopping $3 billion.
As Teladoc moves toward profitability and delves into the vast streams of growth it's acquired with its pandemic-era acquisitions (overpriced though they may have been), shares can follow this growth trajectory steadily back into the green.
3. Johnson & Johnson
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ 0.67%) is a healthcare stock you can easily buy and hold for a decade or longer for a few simple reasons. For one, its businesses are all highly non-cyclical -- which essentially means the company can grow in a wide variety of environments without being notably impacted by fluctuating consumer habits or adverse macroeconomic factors.
Take its pharmaceutical business, for example. Johnson & Johnson is one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies by revenue. Its medicines target many health conditions including, various cancers, autoimmune diseases, cardiovascular disorders, and chronic diseases. In 2021 alone, its pharmaceutical business raked in $52 billion in revenue, up 14% from the prior year.
There's also Johnson & Johnson's thriving medical device business, which saw revenue soar 18% last year to $27 billion. The company recently boosted the long-term potential of this segment with the announcement of its intention to acquire Abiomed, known for its cardiovascular, lung, and kidney medical devices, including the world's smallest heart pump.
Johnson and Johnson's third business is its consumer health segment, which is set to be spun off as an independent, publicly traded company in 2023 called Kenvue. This is the segment that sells familiar names like Tylenol, Motrin, Benadryl, Band-Aid, and Listerine. Although this business has historically grown at a much slower clip than the other two, it still generated $15 billion in revenue in 2021, up 4% from the prior year. Showing the company's ability to create long-lasting tailwinds.
Beyond the resilience of Johnson & Johnson's businesses, it also has a strong history of profitability. This is a company that's grown its annual net income by more than 90% over the trailing decade. It's also worth noting that the stock is a Dividend King that has seen its dividend rise 85% in the past 10 years alone and has a current yield of 2.6%. All these factors make a compelling case for investors seeking steady portfolio growth and dividends to take a long and hard second look at Johnson & Johnson.
