BAXALTA INC. $31 (New York symbol BXLT; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 544.3 million; Market cap: $16.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: n.a.; Dividend yield: 0.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.baxalta.com) makes vaccines and drugs in three main areas: hematology (blood diseases), immunology (immune system) and oncology (cancer).
Before former parent Baxter spun off Baxalta, it bought Germany-based SuppreMol for $225 million. This firm develops drugs for disorders in which the immune system attacks healthy tissue.
Baxter also paid $900 million for the Oncaspar leukemia drug, from Italian pharmaceutical firm Sigma- Tau Finanziaria. Oncaspar has $100 million in annual sales.
In addition to these products, Baxalta is developing its own new drugs; it currently spends 11% of its revenue on research.
The stock trades at 16.0 times the company’s likely 2015 earnings of $1.94 a share. Its annual dividend rate of $0.28 a share yields 0.9%.
Baxalta is a hold.