Healthcare Investing Ideas Big And Small

A delayed flight and a misplaced ticket from the airport parking lot postponed the reunion with my bed.

I had woken up at 5 a.m. to catch my flight home from an exhausting and informative week at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. It’s an exclusive event that is considered to be the Super Bowl of healthcare conferences. I attended for the first time 10 years ago and have returned every year since for one-on-one meetings and company presentations. I met with numerous CEOs, networked at parties where bottles of $250 whiskey were poured and talked with hedge fund managers about their investments.

Here are a few of my takeaways…

Big Pharma to Start Spending

The big pharmaceutical companies love the new tax bill, which will lower their corporate taxes. At the conference, CEOs of large companies said they’d use the extra cash in their coffers on acquisitions, partnerships, share buybacks and dividend increases.

Income investors looking for strong dividend yields should look at Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), with a 3.7% yield, and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), which yields 2.5%. For those who can handle additional risk, GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK), which sports a 5.5% yield, is worth considering.

Acquisitions Could Heat Up

With a dire need for growth, many in the industry expect the larger biotech and pharmaceutical companies to open their wallets and acquire smaller companies with novel drugs in development.

That could make for an exciting year for biotech investors. Some potential acquisition candidates include…