| Walgreen: A Compelling Valuation and Centene Corporation to Present at Citi 2012 Healthcare Conference |
| News - Financial News |
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Walgreen (WAG) has sold off quite substantially from $45 dollars a share in July to under $35 today. The focus of this article is to draw attention to the compelling value that WAG now offers to income and growth investors. This article will offer four points to consider. For a quick primer on their business, WAG operates 8256 total stores comprising mainly of retail pharmacy locations. (store count). The business is viewed as recession proof as evidenced by consistent increases in revenue. Intuitively, this makes sense since demand for pharmaceuticals is inelastic. (Example is one is a diabetic you won't forgo your insulin just because times are tough). The first reason I will cite is the stable and rising dividend paid by the company. WAG has more than doubled the dividend paid since 2007 from $0.345 per share to $0.8 per share in 2011. For 2012, at the current rate of $0.225 per share an income investor can expect $0.9 per share for a current yield of 2.57% (using $35 per share). [Read the full article] The Specialty Pharmacy division of Medco Health Solutions (NYSE:MHS - News) recently announced the launch of a new medical benefit management program to efficiently handle specialty medications covered under major medical plans.With the growing importance of pricey specialty drugs used to treat rare or complex diseases, this new benefit plan is expected to be beneficial in effectively bringing down the cost of medication amid an inflationary situation as well increasing greater efficiencies around the coverage of these drugs.Medco with its subsidiary Accredo Health Group is entering into a partnership with specialty medications manager NovoLogix in order to obtain technological support for Medco's medical benefit management program. This program should help reduce the estimated cost of $8 billion that is generated annually due to lack of compliance, over-utilization, non-formulary drug use and other inefficiencies. [Read the full article] LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -- The state of Nebraska is switching health care providers in a move that will save an estimated $8 million a year without major disruptions for employees, a state administrator said Wednesday. Department of Administrative Services Director Carlos Castillo said the change to United Health Care was based on the expected yearly savings for the state and its employees. Nebraska has been a Blue Cross/Blue Shield client for at least 25 years. Castillo said United Health Care has established a large network in Nebraska, similar to Blue Cross/Blue Shield, so the vast majority of employees will see no disruption in their services. Some employees may have to go to a different provider, but Castillo said the networks are "pretty much the same." "It just made financial sense for us," Castillo said. [Read the full article] 
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