Large Cap Biopharmaceuticals: A Core Position For A Healthcare Portfolio

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Large Cap Biopharmaceuticals: Provide stable growth plus dividends.
- Large-cap biopharmaceuticals provide growth plus dividends.
- Healthcare and biopharma stocks should offer some refuge from market volatility compared to tech stocks.
- M&A continues to provide growth and dynamic pipelines.
We have been consistent throughout 2025 and even earlier that Large Cap Biopharma stocks should be a core position for a healthcare equity portfolio. Now that many issues that we raised about the Trump Administration’s criticisms about the industry, namely Pricing and U.S manufacturing, have been negotiated, we can look at financial metrics. Many of the large caps have committed to “reshoring,” i.e., investing in U.S.-based R&D and manufacturing in the U.S.
So here are the performance metrics for January compared to the previous two years. As of the end of January, these values take into account the JPMorgan Health Care Conference and recent 2025 earnings updates, with the exception of Vertex (2/12).
Here are some takeaways through January 2026:
- The best performer for January was Gilead Sciences (GILD), up 15% YTD and 46% over one year!
- For a value trade with turnaround potential, look at Pfizer (PFE) with a 6% dividend. Same for BMY.
- The sector still looks strong because ETFs beat the market: IBB up 24% over one year and PPH up 19%, whereas the S&P 500 (SPY) was up only 14.37%.
- The best Mutual Fund in terms of sector continues to be Fidelity Select Biotechnology (FBIOX) up 32% over the past year.
- Here are major stock gainers over one year: GILD 46%, AZN 32%, ABBV 27%, LLY 26%, AMGN 20%.
- Still trying to decide whether to sellor buy a stock- look at the RSI as an “arbiter” Or technicals.
- JNJ (up 50% over one year) is not included in the grid because it is a Medical device and a Pharma hybrid, and it has been recently restructured.
LONG: ABBV, BMY, LLY, GILD, PFE, REGN, VRTX. Also long Swiss pharma: NVS and RHHBY.
| Analyst | p | PRICE | PRICE | 52 wk | ||||||||||||||
| Top Biopharmas | TICKER | PICK | TECH | Fwd/PE | Summ | 2022 | 11/23 | 7/12/25 | 1/4/26 | 2/1/26 | 1 yr % | YTD | div % | RSI | high | |||
| Abbvie | ABBV | B | U/F | 15.63 | 1.84 | 161.64 | 138.59 | 192.45 | 229.31 | 223 | 27 | -2.4 | 3.02 | 51.48 | 244.8 | |||
| Amgen | AMGN | H | U | 15.45 | 2.24 | 275 | 303 | 292.27 | 327.64 | 341.88 | 20.37 | 4.45 | 2.82 | 56.1 | 253 | nh | ||
| Astra Zeneca | AZN | H/B | U | 18 | 1.63 | 68 | 63.17 | 71.13 | 91.57 | 92.77 | 32 | 0.28 | 1.69 | 50.13 | 94 | |||
| Bristol Myers Sq | BMY | B | U | 9 | 2.43 | 71.05 | 50.61 | 59 | 55.05 | 55.05 | -6.92 | 2.06 | 4.64 | 54 | 63.33 | |||
| Eli Lilly | LLY | B | U/F | 31.47 | 1.62 | 447.71 | 597.71 | 793.01 | 1080.4 | 1037 | 26 | -3.49 | 0.61 | 46.22 | 1199 | |||
| Gilead Science | GILD | H/B | U | 16.15 | 1.68 | 85.39 | 75.92 | 109.64 | 123.4 | 141.95 | 46.4 | 15.65 | 2.26 | 73.41 | 146 | nh | ||
| Merck | MRK | H/B | U | 20.93 | 1.97 | 110.95 | 103 | 106.45 | 91.45 | 110.27 | 11.44 | 4.76 | 3.14 | 67.5 | 112.9 | n/h | ||
| Pfizer | PFE | H/B | F | 8.89 | 2.39 | 51.24 | 29.48 | 25.18 | 25.87 | 26.44 | -1.75 | 6.18 | 6.59 | 60 | 27.69 | |||
| Regeneron | REGN | B | U | 14.21 | 1.73 | 725 | 798 | 567.74 | 776.3 | 741.45 | 8.55 | -3.94 | 0.51 | 44.56 | 793 | |||
| Vertex | VRTX | H/B | U | 23.65 | 1.72 | 289 | 373.65 | 468.85 | 452.13 | 469.9 | 7.19 | 3.65 | 0 | 56 | 519 | |||
| Van Eck ETF | PPH | B | U | 103.72 | 106.8 | 19.31 | 3.53 | 1.78 | 62.76 | 99.51 | LLY,NVS,MRK, NVO | |||||||
| iShares | IBB | B | F | 169 | 172.43 | 24.17 | 2.17 | 0.23 | 50.83 | 174.4 |
VRTX,GILD, AMGN REGN |
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