Trump + Stocks: The Week In Review

Big pharma names were under pressure this week after President-elect Donald Trump said that the drug industry is "getting away with murder" in terms of pricing of drugs in the U.S. During his first press conference in five months, Trump mentioned Lockheed Martin (LMT) once again, saying he plans to get plane costs "way down."

PHARMACEUTICAL SECTOR: In his first press conference as President-elect, Donald Trump said that the drug industry is "getting away with murder" in terms of pricing of drugs in the U.S. Following his comments, several large-cap pharmaceutical names moved downward, including Mallinckrodt (MNK), Mylan (MYL), Endo International (ENDP), Eli Lily (LLY), GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Novartis (NVS), Pfizer (PFE), and Sanofi (SNY).

LOCKHEED MARTIN: Another name that dropped following Wednesday's press conference was Lockheed Martin. President-elect Trump said, once again, that he plans to get plane costs "way down." On Friday, Trump met with the company's CEO Marillyn Hewson, who told reporters after Lockheed Martin is close to a deal to lower the costs of the F-35 program and is planning to increase jobs at its Forth Worth, Texas, facility by 1,800. Back in December, President-elect had unleashed a series of tweets criticizing "cost overruns" of the company's F-35 fighter jet.

EHEALTH: On Monday, Craig-Hallum analyst George Sutton upgraded eHealth (EHTH) to Buy on the potential for the repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care, which he said has created a "series of problems" for the company's plan segments. The analyst told investors that he expects the repeal and replacement to "dramatically downscale" the cost structure and competitive element of Healthcare.gov in favor of web-based entities such as eHealth.

AMERICAN EXPRESS: Bank of America Merrrill Lynch analyst Kenneth Bruce also upgraded American Express (AXP) to Buy this week, saying increased travel and entertainment spending and easing competitive concerns should drive a higher multiple. Bruce noted that the election has increased corporate and consumer optimism that is driving better travel and entertainment spending and recent steps by Chase (JPM) to roll-back aggressive incentives in its Sapphire Reserve program should reduce competitive concerns.

GROCERY SECTOR: After reviewing both the Trump and the House Republican tax plans, Oppenheimer analyst Rupesh Parikh told investors that President-elect's tax plan could be "quite beneficial" to grocers. Conversely, he believes that the House tax plan, using static assumptions and including border adjustments, could potentially be modestly positive or even detrimental, depending on the mix of imported goods. Public companies in the sector include Whole Foods (WFM), Kroger (KR), Sprout Farmers (SFM), Natural Grocers (NGVC), and Smart & Final Stores (SFS).

PENTAIR, ROPER TECHNOLOGIES: On Friday, JPMorgan analyst C. Stephen Tusa upgraded Pentair (PNR) and Roper Technologies (ROP) to Overweight from Neutral. Regarding Pentair, the analyst said he sees potential for relative upside to organic growth in a better economy and less downside in a sluggish/steady-state economy. On the other hand, Tusa pointed out he believes Roper is not getting credit as others have for Trump-related benefits, for recent M&A that was highly free cash flow accretive, or for a return to relative organic outperformance. Conversely, the analyst downgraded TriMas (TRS) to Neutral, saying the stock's current valuation discounts the majority of the benefit from future margin expansion and earnings upside under a Trump administration.

"Trump + Stocks" is The Fly's weekly recap of its recurring series of "Trump Effect" exclusive stories that highlight stocks that are being impacted, or are predicted to be impacted, by the comments, actions and policies of President-elect Trump and his administration.
 

Disclosure: None.

OTHERS TO WATCH: Many others in the retail sector are lower this morning, including Macy's, Kohl's, American Eagle, ...

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