Spotlight: Alexion Pharmaceuticals

Alexion Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ALXN) is a biopharmaceutical company that focuses on therapeutic products to treat rare diseases. Because they focus on the treatment of rare diseases, their target market is relatively small. Still, their estimated sales growth is expected to be 41,66%, whereas the industry median is only 11,46%, Moreover, Alexion notes a P/E ratio of 77.40, while the industry P/E ratios are close to 20-40. This is an indication that more growth is to be expected from Alexion than from others in this industry. It is also very likely that this growth is sustainable due to the high developing costs of its medicines, keeping competitors from entering a market where there are high R&D costs and a small consumer market, hence there will not be competitors taking market share away from Alexion. Combing these factors with the high gross margin (89,15%) of Alexion, makes Alexion an interesting stock for the long term. Its stock price may grow to $200 (compared to $167 today). Therefore, we name Alexion Pharmaceuticals a Stock Smash.