Top Jefferies Stock Picks to Buy Now Also Pay Good Dividends
By Lee Jackson	September 21, 2016 8:25 am EDT
This solid pick still offers investors a solid entry point after see-sawing this year. AstraZeneca PLC (NYSE: AZN) is a global, innovation-driven biopharmaceutical business that focuses on the discovery, development and commercialization of prescription medicines, primarily for the treatment of cardiovascular, metabolic, respiratory, inflammation, autoimmune, oncology, infection and neuroscience diseases. AstraZeneca operates in over 100 countries, and its innovative medicines are used by millions of patients worldwide.
This company also has an outstanding pipeline, especially in oncology. The broad pipeline of next-generation investigational medicines is focused on four main disease areas: ovarian, lung, breast and haematological cancers. These are being targeted through four key platforms: immuno-oncology, the genetic drivers of cancer and resistance, DNA damage repair and antibody drug conjugates.
Oncology is a therapeutic area in which AstraZeneca has deep-rooted heritage. It will be potentially transformational for the company's future, becoming the sixth growth platform. The long-term corporate goal is to help patients by redefining the cancer treatment paradigm and one day eliminate cancer as cause of death. By 2020, the company is aiming to bring six new cancer medicines to patients.
Shareholders receive a 4.07% dividend. Jefferies has a $47.10 price objective, and the consensus target is $36.79. The stock closed Tuesday at $33.65.
Golar LNG Partners
This is a liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipping and storage play that holds a big distribution for shareholders and is the top pick at Jefferies. Golar LNG Partners L.P. (NASDAQ: GMLP) owns and operates floating storage regasification units (FSRUs) and LNG carriers under long-term charters in Brazil, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia and Kuwait. The company also engages in the leasing of its fleets.
The Marshall Islands based company has a fleet of six FSRUs and five LNG carriers, a combined average remaining useful life of 25 years, and an average remaining charter duration of five-plus years. The company posted solid second-quarter results and also was successful in lowering leverage.
Jefferies noted in its initiation of coverage:
Golar LNG Partners has a diverse pipeline that includes Golar's FLNG projects and as a result, has the largest growth potential across our peer group with potential drop-downs/newbuilding inventories of 16 vessels.
Shareholders are paid a massive 12.05% distribution. The Jefferies price target is $25. The consensus target is set at $20. The shares closed Tuesday at $19.17.
This top software stock has traded sideways since the spring and looks to be putting in a nice cup and handle formation. Oracle Corp. (NYSE: ORCL) develops, manufactures, markets, sells, hosts and supports database and middleware software, application software, cloud infrastructure, hardware systems and related services worldwide.
The company licenses its Oracle Database software to customers, which is designed to enable reliable and secure storage, retrieval and manipulation of various forms of data. Its Oracle Fusion Middleware software aims to build, deploy, secure, access and integrate business applications, as well as automate their business processes.
Oracle recently reported fiscal 2017 first-quarter numbers that came in below Wall Street expectations. Despite the miss, Jefferies and others on Wall Street feel that the software giant may be on the verge of a multiyear database product cycle.
Oracle investors receive a 1.54% dividend. Jefferies has $51 price target, and the consensus price objective is $44.21. The stock closed Tuesday at $39.07.
All these stocks are great additions to long-term growth accounts looking to add total return. They are trading at reasonable valuations and are good additions at current trading levels.
By Lee Jackson
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