Out Fox The $treet

JNJ dipped after underwhelming guidance for 2018. The stock has lagged the market rally due to a stretched valuation and limited growth. The lack of additional capital returns is a negative signal for the stock. Despite the gains of the last year,   Johnson & Johnson   ( JNJ ) hasn't actually outperformed the market. In fact, the stock has now vastly underperformed the market since the start of November and reinforces the   valuation questions   that exist with this healthcare stock and ongoing negative signals from the company.  Read the full article on Seeking Alpha.  Disclosure: No position mentioned. Please read the disclaimer page for more details.   

One way for a business to expand is buying up smaller competitors to create a regional or national play in a fragmented industry. The plan can help build a brand that provides for better recognition over smaller competitors, but it can also be ripe with problems of consolidating numerous businesses with different cultures. In the home care and infusion sector, BioScrip ( NASDAQ: BIOS     ) has begun the process of acquiring companies that provide alternate-site and home infusion therapy for patients with complex, acute and chronic illnesses. With an aging population, the expectations for all types of therapies provided outside expensive medical centers are expected to continue growing. Read the article here . Disclosure: No positions mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more details. 

Cheap, cheap, cheap. Amazing how truly bearish this market has become. All earnings expectations are scrutinized to the nth degree. Even a strong company like Coventry Health (CVH) can up guidance for 2010 by nearly 10% and see the stock barely react with the PE at only 6.7. The stock has been down 35% over the last couple of months. How did we get to a point where investors are so bearish that they completely ignore fundamentals? Sure CVH is in the healthcare sector and Obama's new healthecare bill raises alot of concerns in the industry, but CVH has had a couple of months to study the impacts and they are comfortable enough to up guidance. Excluding a beneficial impact from Medicare Advantage private payments of 28 cents per share, the forecast range of $2.47 to $2.62 is well above the consensus $2.31 analysts have been projecting. ($2.55 midpoint) In addition they also recently made an accretive acquisition on 6/30. Mercy Health Plans has roughly 180K members providing CVH with...