Pfizer Inc.

Knight Therapeutics, $5.45, symbol GUD on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 77.8 million; Market cap: $423.8 million; www.gud-knight.com), was handed out to Paladin Labs shareholders after that company was recently acquired by Endo Health Solutions plc. Knight began trading on the Toronto exchange on March 3, 2014. The company’s assets from the spinoff mostly consist of Impavido, for treating Leishmaniasis, a rare disease that is spread via bites from infected sand flies. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Impavido on March 19, 2014. Knight Therapeutics has just raised $180.1 million by issuing special warrants for $5.25 each. These warrants can be converted into common shares by August 11, 2014. Earlier this year, the company raised an additional $75 million....

NEWELL RUBBERMAID INC., $28.88, New York symbol NWL, makes a variety of everyday items, such as trash cans and food-storage containers. Aside from Rubbermaid, its main brands include Sharpie, Paper Mate, Waterman and Levolor. In the three months ended March 31, 2014, Newell’s sales fell 0.7%, to $1.23 billion from $1.24 billion a year earlier. That’s partly because harsh winter weather kept many shoppers at home. As well, the company had to recall infant car seats to fix defective seat belts. Newell gets about a third of its sales from outside the U.S. If you disregard the negative impact of currency exchange rates, sales rose 0.7% in the quarter....

SPDR S&P 500 ETF $187.75 (New York symbol SPY; buy or sell through brokers; www.spdrs.com) holds the stocks in the S&P 500 Index, which consists of 500 major U.S. companies that are chosen based on their market cap, liquidity and industry group.

The index’s highest-weighted stocks are Apple, ExxonMobil, Google, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, J.P. Morgan Chase, IBM, Chevron, General Electric, Pfizer, Berkshire Hathaway, Verizon and Wells Fargo. The fund’s expenses are just 0.10% of its assets.

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Pat McKeough responds to many requests from members of his Inner Circle for specific advice on stocks to buy as well as questions on investment strategy and the economy. Every week, his comments and recommendations on the most intriguing questions of the past week go out to all Inner Circle members. And each week, we offer you one of the highlights from these Q&A sessions. While we reserve our buy-hold-sell advice for Inner Circle members, these excerpts provide a great deal of information and analysis on stocks we’ve covered for members of Pat’s Inner Circle....

Esperion Therapeutics, $15.89, symbol ESPR on Nasdaq (Shares outstanding: 15.4 million; Market cap: $238.6 million; www.esperion.com), develops treatments for patients with elevated levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). LDL-C, known as “bad cholesterol,” can collect in the walls of blood vessels, causing blockages in arteries. Higher LDL-C levels can increase the risk of a heart attack. The company first sold shares to the public at $14 each and began trading on Nasdaq on June 26, 2013....

NEWELL RUBBERMAID INC., $29.32, New York symbol NWL, fell 6% this week after the company warned that its earnings for the first quarter of 2014 would miss the consensus forecast. Harsh winter weather has prompted many shoppers to stay home. That has hurt sales of Newell’s household products, like trash cans, pens and food-storage containers. As well, the company had to recall 3.8 million infant car seats to fix a defective seat belt. These factors will cut Newell’s first-quarter earnings by $0.03 to $0.04 a share. As a result, it will probably earn $0.33 a share, compared to the consensus estimate of $0.35....

Exchange traded funds (ETFs) are set up to mirror the performance of a stock-market index or sub-index. They hold a more or less fixed selection of securities that represent the holdings that go into the calculation of the index or sub-index.

ETFs trade on stock exchanges, just like stocks....

The new Affordable Care Act (or Obamacare) has forced pharmaceutical firms like Pfizer to cut the price of prescription drugs they sell through the Medicaid program. The new law will also increase the use of cheaper generic competitors.

However, Obamacare also extends health coverage to 32 million more Americans, which will push up demand for all drugs....

Here are some of our recommendations in the health care area: PFIZER, $31.87, symbol PFE on New York (Shares outstanding: 6.5 billion; Market cap: $206.6 billion; www.pfizer.com), is the world’s largest pharmaceutical drug maker. Its top-selling brands include Lipitor (for high cholesterol), Lyrica (epilepsy), Celebrex (arthritis), Viagra (erectile dysfunction), Xalatan (glaucoma), Norvasc (hypertension) and Zyvox (bacterial infections). Pfizer also makes over-the-counter drugs. Its major brands include Advil (pain relief), Centrum (vitamins) and Robitussin (cough syrup). Buy....

SONY CORP. ADRs, $16.82, New York symbol SNE, gained 7% this week after it said it would consolidate its money-losing TV operations as a separate firm by July 2014. That should make it easier to sell in the future. In the meantime, Sony will focus on making high-end ultra high-definition TV sets, which are more profitable than current TVs. As well, the company has agreed to sell its struggling Vaio personal computer operations to a private equity firm, though it will hang on to 5% of this business for now. These moves make sense, because intense competition has made these products less profitable. They will also let Sony focus on its more-promising products, like its PlayStation video game console....