J. Jeffrey Auxier, President of Auxier Asset Management, Sees Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) and Biogen (NASDAQ:BIIB) as 2018 Stocks to Buy

December 28, 2017

J. Jeffrey Auxier is President of Auxier Asset Management LLC and Founder of the Auxier Focus Fund. Prior to forming Auxier Asset Management in 1998, Mr. Auxier spent 16 years at Smith Barney — formerly Foster Marshall-American Express, then Shearson — where he was on the Portfolio Management Advisory Board and the Chairman’s Council, and was Senior Vice President of Investments and Senior Portfolio Management Director.  In this exclusive interview with the Wall Street Transcript, Mr. Auxier explains the methodology that his firm practices:

“We have a documented track record going back to 1989 for separate accounts and back to 1999 for the Auxier Focus Fund. We started the fund close to the top of the market in 1999, and it’s pretty much outperformed all of the major indexes since that time. We survived two 40% market declines in nine years. So normally, when the market gets tough, you’ll find out who the real investors are.”

The current high profile portfolio companies include some recognizable biotech names:  “In general, we really like valuations of several leading biotech companies, like Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN), which is going to earn close to $14 this next year and trades at $169. Amgen has $38 billion in cash, and 40% of their sales are free cash. They’ve got just staggering amounts of free cash, and we like what’s going on in terms of the innovation and then some of the deregulation, where these companies can finally get safe compounds out to the market, but it’s been a laggard, but 13 times earnings and an attractive free cash flow yield. As we get into a potential tightening as we run down to 4.1% unemployment and then with the new tax code, we’d see actually the potential for quite a boom in new business formations.”

Mr. Auxier includes another big biotech stock in his portfolio.

“We have a fairly large stake in Biogen (NASDAQ:BIIB) as a bet. Biogen is a leader in basically diseases of the brain: MS, ALS, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. So we think, in time, those businesses that are most focused on research will win in the end.”

For full descriptions of these recommendations and many more of Mr. Auxier’s winners, read the entire interview in the Wall Street Transcript.