Run-Ups and Surges in Home Health Care (LNCR, APRE, ALXN)

In various forms, Lincare Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LNCR), Aperture Health, Inc. (PINK:APRE), and Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALXN) all provide home care products and this grouping represents a spread from $0.44 to $25 to $78 to buy shares from three providers.

Let’s go down the middle at first… at $25.79, Lincare has had a solid run-up in the last two months, moving from $22.12 on Nov 25 to today’s current price; a gain of 16.5%. LNCR has had a couple of pieces of news that have helped it along the way including some media coverage on the $2.8 billion Company about its 3.11% annual dividend yield; the current annualized dividend is $0.80 a share. 

Also a Forbes story last week about the Company’s CEO buying $521k worth of shares in the last months at an aggregate price of $20.86 a share received a lot of “Insider Tradering” coverage. 

The Company’s customers suffer from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), such as emphysema, chronic bronchitis, or asthma, and require supplemental oxygen or other respiratory therapy services. LNCR serves nearly 750k people in 48 states at 1,090 clinics. There’s strength to the run-up and even with some natural profit-taking; the surge could easily continue. 

For the most expensive stock buy of this group, there’s Alexion Pharmaceuticals which was trading in the $63.03 on Dec 14 and is currently trading in the $75.10 range; a gain of 19.14% in six weeks. A very strong surge and lots of happy shareholders here. 

ALXN can be consider as both a Pharma play and Home Health Care play: the Company is primarily focused on blood and eye diseases with a pipeline of clinical trials, but it also provides Home Health Care providers, physician office clinics, hospital outpatient clinics, infusion clinics, and pharmacies with its already approved treatment products.

And finally at the least expensive “Entry Price” of this group is for a new buyer is Aperture Health. The stock had been traveling along at $0.31 for most of Jan, and then a new partnership deal sent the shares soaring to $0.44; a quick gain of 41.93%. 

So can the stock, after a little normal profit taking when it tops out, keep that gain? That’s anybody’s guess, but if the Company can continue its “Joint Venture” strategy; it very well may be done with its 31 cent days.

APRE last week signed a memorandum to build a partnership with Reliable Medical which will give Aperture’s home infusion business access to the home health care market in central and northern New Jersey. 

In my opinion this is exactly the type of deal APRE needs to be constantly putting together to increase revenues. To date, Aperture has based sales on patient referrals made from physicians, hospitals, insurance companies, veterinarians, and hospice care providers and increasing its penetration through partnerships with already established businesses in communities and regions could be a big plus bringing in money and increasing share valuation.

I haven’t, don’t, and do not intend on holding any of the companies mentioned in this article.