United Therapeutics Insider Sold Shares Worth $2,828,672, According to a Recent SEC Filing

Taking full advantage of the stock market and investing with confidence are common goals for new and old investors, and Zacks Premium offers many different ways to do both.

The research service features daily updates of the Zacks Rank and Zacks Industry Rank, full access to the Zacks #1 Rank List, Equity Research reports, and Premium stock screens, all of which will help you become a smarter, more confident investor.

Zacks Premium also includes the Zacks Style Scores.

What are the Zacks Style Scores?

The Zacks Style Scores is a unique set of guidelines that rates stocks based on three popular investing types, and were developed as complementary indicators for the Zacks Rank. This combination helps investors choose securities with the highest chances of beating the market over the next 30 days.

Each stock is given an alphabetic rating of A, B, C, D or F based on their value, growth, and momentum qualities. With this system, an A is better than a B, a B is better than a C, and so on, meaning the better the score, the better chance the stock will outperform.

The Style Scores are broken down into four categories:

Value Score

Finding good stocks at good prices, and discovering which companies are trading under their true value, are what value investors like to focus on. So, the Value Style Score takes into account ratios like P/E, PEG, Price/Sales, Price/Cash Flow, and a host of other multiples to highlight the most attractive and discounted stocks.

Growth Score

While good value is important, growth investors are more focused on a company's financial strength and health, and its future outlook. The Growth Style Score takes projected and historic earnings, sales, and cash flow into account to uncover stocks that will see long-term, sustainable growth.

Momentum Score

Momentum trading is all about taking advantage of upward or downward trends in a stock's price or earnings outlook, and these investors live by the saying "the trend is your friend." The Momentum Style Score can pinpoint good times to build a position in a stock, using factors like one-week price change and the monthly percentage change in earnings estimates.

VGM Score

If you like to use all three kinds of investing, then the VGM Score is for you. It's a combination of all Style Scores, and is an important indicator to use with the Zacks Rank. The VGM Score rates each stock on their shared weighted styles, narrowing down the companies with the most attractive value, best growth forecast, and most promising momentum.

How Style Scores Work with the Zacks Rank

The Zacks Rank is a proprietary stock-rating model that harnesses the power of earnings estimate revisions, or changes to a company's earnings expectations, to help investors build a successful portfolio.

#1 (Strong Buy) stocks have produced an unmatched +25.41% average annual return since 1988, which is more than double the S&P 500's performance over the same time frame. However, the Zacks Rank examines a ton of stocks, and there can be more than 200 companies with a Strong Buy rank, and another 600 with a #2 (Buy) rank, on any given day.

But it can feel overwhelming to pick the right stocks for you and your investing goals with over 800 top-rated stocks to choose from.

That's where the Style Scores come in.

To have the best chance of big returns, you'll want to always consider stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 or #2 that also have Style Scores of A or B, which will give you the highest probability of success. If you're looking at stocks with a #3 (Hold) rank, it's important they have Scores of A or B as well to ensure as much upside potential as possible.

Since the Scores were created to work together with the Zacks Rank, the direction of a stock's earnings estimate revisions should be a key factor when choosing which stocks to buy.

For instance, a stock with a #4 (Sell) or #5 (Strong Sell) rating, even one that boasts Scores of A and B, still has a downward-trending earnings forecast, and a much greater likelihood its share price will decline as well.

Thus, the more stocks you own with a #1 or #2 Rank and Scores of A or B, the better.

Stock to Watch: United Therapeutics (UTHR)

Silver Spring, MD-based United Therapeutics Corporation markets four medicines in the United States to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH): Remodulin, an injectable formulation of treprostinil, Orenitram, an oral version of treprostinil, Tyvaso, an inhaled version of treprostinil, and Adcirca (tadalafil; also sold by Eli Lilly as Cialis for erectile dysfunction) tablets. Remodulin is approved for both subcutaneous (SC) and intravenous (IV) use.

UTHR is a #3 (Hold) on the Zacks Rank, with a VGM Score of A.

It also boasts a Value Style Score of A thanks to attractive valuation metrics like a forward P/E ratio of 14.37; value investors should take notice.

Four analysts revised their earnings estimate upwards in the last 60 days for fiscal 2024. The Zacks Consensus Estimate has increased $0.26 to $25.10 per share. UTHR boasts an average earnings surprise of 4.2%.

With a solid Zacks Rank and top-tier Value and VGM Style Scores, UTHR should be on investors' short list.

Zacks Investment Research

If you're interested in broad exposure to the Healthcare - Biotech segment of the equity market, look no further than the Invesco Biotechnology & Genome ETF (PBE), a passively managed exchange traded fund launched on 06/23/2005.

Retail and institutional investors increasingly turn to passively managed ETFs because they offer low costs, transparency, flexibility, and tax efficiency; these kind of funds are also excellent vehicles for long term investors.

Sector ETFs are also funds of convenience, offering many ways to gain low risk and diversified exposure to a broad group of companies in particular sectors. Healthcare - Biotech is one of the 16 broad Zacks sectors within the Zacks Industry classification. It is currently ranked 3, placing it in top 19%.

Index Details

The fund is sponsored by Invesco. It has amassed assets over $249.41 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs attempting to match the performance of the Healthcare - Biotech segment of the equity market. PBE seeks to match the performance of the Dynamic Biotechnology & Genome Intellidex Index before fees and expenses.

The Dynamic Biotech & Genome Intellidex Index seeks to provide capital appreciation by thoroughly evaluating companies based on a variety of investment merit criteria, including price momentum, earnings momentum, quality, management action, and value.

Costs

Cost is an important factor in selecting the right ETF, and cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive counterparts if all other fundamentals are the same.

Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.58%, making it on par with most peer products in the space.

It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 0.05%.

Sector Exposure and Top Holdings

ETFs offer a diversified exposure and thus minimize single stock risk but it is still important to delve into a fund's holdings before investing. Most ETFs are very transparent products and many disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

This ETF has heaviest allocation in the Healthcare sector--about 99.80% of the portfolio.

Looking at individual holdings, Illumina Inc (ILMN) accounts for about 5.92% of total assets, followed by United Therapeutics Corp (UTHR) and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc (ALNY).

The top 10 holdings account for about 45.06% of total assets under management.

Performance and Risk

So far this year, PBE has gained about 1.19%, and is up about 18.40% in the last one year (as of 11/20/2024). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $56.35 and $72.24.

The ETF has a beta of 0.80 and standard deviation of 23.63% for the trailing three-year period, making it a high risk choice in the space. With about 32 holdings, it has more concentrated exposure than peers.

Alternatives

Invesco Biotechnology & Genome ETF holds a Zacks ETF Rank of 2 (Buy), which is based on expected asset class return, expense ratio, and momentum, among other factors. Because of this, PBE is a great option for investors seeking exposure to the Health Care ETFs segment of the market. There are other additional ETFs in the space that investors could consider as well.

IShares Biotechnology ETF (IBB) tracks Nasdaq Biotechnology Index and the SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (XBI) tracks S&P Biotechnology Select Industry Index. IShares Biotechnology ETF has $6.63 billion in assets, SPDR S&P Biotech ETF has $7.23 billion. IBB has an expense ratio of 0.45% and XBI charges 0.35%.

Bottom Line

To learn more about this product and other ETFs, screen for products that match your investment objectives and read articles on latest developments in the ETF investing universe, please visit Zacks ETF Center.

Zacks Investment Research