Ticker Reports for September 1st
3 Healthcare Pathbreakers With Long-Term Tailwinds
In the world of healthcare stocks, a major innovation, new medical device, or successful drug treatment can cement a firm's position as a leader. Unfortunately, many firms chase after these goals and never achieve them. To truly achieve long-term success in this sector, a company must be able to provide a technology or group of products so compelling as to withstand competition, generic alternatives, and a host of other threats.
Predicting these firms—the pathbreakers with true staying power over the long term—is notoriously difficult. Analysts have homed in on three companies, based in the Netherlands, Ireland, and the United States, respectively, that may be positioned for extended success. We explore these firms—argenx SE (NASDAQ: ARGX), ICON plc (NASDAQ: ICLR), and Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (NYSE: EW)—more closely below.
Dominant Position in Unique Autoimmune Condition Treatment
Biotech firm argenx develops treatments for autoimmune diseases using a unique approach known as antibody fragment therapy. The company's main candidate is efgartigimod, also known as VYVGART, which aims to treat chronic autoimmune conditions such as myasthenia gravis. To this day, efgartigimod occupies a unique space as the first and only FDA-approved FcRn antagonist, which blocks a certain receptor to reduce antibody levels.
As argenx looks to expand VYVGART into a variety of other autoimmune indications, the company is aiming to solidify its position as the go-to firm for a fully unique and potent treatment option. However, argenx also has other promising assets in development, including multiple Phase III trials, helping to ensure that it's not overly reliant on a single drug product.
With autoimmune conditions on the rise globally—and many of those conditions currently without any effective treatment whatsoever—argenx may hold the key to dominating a fast-growing corner of the market. As the company's product sales increased by 97% year-over-year (YOY) in the latest quarter, it seems this work is already well underway. Analysts agree: shockingly, all 21 analysts rating ARGX shares have assigned a Buy rating to the stock.
Niche Service Provider ICON Has Revenue Resilience and a History of Buybacks
ICON is a contract research organization (CRO), a firm offering outsourced development and commercialization services to other healthcare industry companies. Since its $12-billion 2021 acquisition of PRA Health Sciences, ICON has become one of the very largest CROs in the world. The company is thus uniquely able to offer crucial services like decentralized clinical trials, an area in which ICON has become a global leader.
This type of clinical trial is increasingly in demand because it tends to be more cost-effective and to run over a shorter timeframe than other types of trials. This has manifested for ICON in strong long-term service contracts and resilient revenue despite external challenges to the industry; despite a slight YOY decline in revenue for the second quarter of the year, ICON still came out ahead of analyst predictions in this area, thanks in part to rising pass-through services.
The company has strong free cash flow, which has allowed it the flexibility to repurchase $250 million in shares in the latest quarter alone—and to authorize up to $1 billion in additional buybacks. This commitment to shareholder value, combined with ICON's advantageous position in the industry, has prompted 10 out of 16 analysts to rate the company a Buy and to assign it a consensus price target more than 25% higher than the current price point.
Strong Position in the TAVR Space With a Hefty Investment in Tech Development As Well
Edwards Lifesciences is an innovator in the area of medical devices related to structural heart disease and is known in particular for its transcatheter aortic valve replacement system (TAVR), a minimally invasive alternative to open-heart surgery.
Edwards remains dominant in the healthcare industry for TAVR and has a leading global market share. Surgeons are also increasingly favoring TAVR over other types of surgeries, a shift that bodes well for Edwards over the long term.
Edwards is coming off of solid earnings results for the second quarter, with both top- and bottom-line beats over expectations. However, EPS did decline by 3 cents per share YOY; analysts are not disturbed and still call for more than 12% earnings growth in the year to come, though.
Boosting this company's potential as a pathbreaker is its expansive R&D, including via its expansion into the transcatheter mitral and tricuspid therapies space. This addressable market is potentially larger than the one for TAVR, and Edwards' high margins and strong reinvestment of sales into R&D help to ensure that it will remain at the cutting edge technologically.
Why Trump's "Smart Dollar" could rewrite the rules
Why Trump's "Smart Dollar" could rewrite the rules
3 Tariff-Proof Retailers Making New All-time Highs
American importers are facing the highest average tariff rates in nearly 100 years following President Trump’s India tariff bump, and businesses are quickly coming to terms with a difficult choice: take a margin hit from the added costs or pass the burden onto their customers.
So far, it's been a mix of both, but the retail industry companies are beginning to buckle as their margins can’t support the ever-increasing import taxes.
However, not every company in the sector is struggling; these three companies have seen their stocks hit new all-time highs this month thanks to business strategies that help them avoid the bulk of the tariffs.
Companies That Avoid Tariffs Can Expand Margins
Tariffs naturally hurt companies that rely heavily on imported materials, but their impact is often felt far and wide throughout the economy. Knowing that their competitors will be forced to raise prices to protect their margins, domestic producers frequently raise their prices, as they can use the extra revenue to expand their margins.
Put on your pretend hat and imagine two companies that sell similar products for $20 a piece. Company A imports 80% of its material from a country with a 25% tariff, while Company B imports 20% with the same tariff rate. Company A will need to raise its price by $4 to maintain its margin, as most of its material will be subject to tariffs.
However, Company B can maintain its margins with only a $1 price increase.
If Company A charges $24 for its product, Company B can raise its prices to $23 and retain the extra $2 as profit. Not only does Company B now have a more competitive price, but it also has a more substantial margin.
This concept is even more pronounced in the retail sector, where margins are thin and competition is fierce.
Three Retail Giants With Minimal Tariff Headwinds
We’ve identified three major retailers with successful tariff mitigation strategies, and their stocks have been rewarded in 2025 with new all-time highs. Strong technical and fundamental trends are expected to continue driving these stocks upward throughout the remainder of the year.
eBay: Providing a Platform Instead of Merchandise
eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) has reached new all-time highs thanks to its successful platform that pairs buyers and sellers.
You’re likely familiar with the eBay bidding process: potential customers bid on an item (similar to a silent auction) until the sale time runs out, at which point the item is awarded to the highest bidder.
eBay collects fees from sellers for each item sold on its platform, such as insertion fees for opening a bid or final value charges when an item is sold.
However, since eBay doesn’t own or hold any inventory, it doesn’t pay any tariffs; all import charges are the responsibility of the two parties initiating the transaction.
eBay’s business model has led to strong earnings growth, and its net margin is currently over 20%, a hefty number for a retailer. Despite the 51% year-to-date (YTD) gain, the stock still trades at just 20x earnings, substantially below the industry average of 35x earnings.
The uptrend is evident on the daily chart, but one area of concern is the support level at the 50-day simple moving average (SMA). EBAY shares broke out above trend following the company’s top- and bottom-line Q2 earnings beat, but a return to the 50-day SMA is possible from here.
Tractor Supply Co: Reliable Domestic Sourcing
Tractor Supply Co. (NYSE: TSCO) is more than just a farm equipment store; it’s a lifestyle brand with a dedicated clientele. Farms nationwide depend on Tractor Supply for equipment, machinery, animal feed, and other agricultural supplies.
And thanks to its domestic sourcing model, TSCO estimates that only 12% of its sales come from imported products.
The company posted a record sales of $4.44 billion in Q2 2025, and a new uptrend has recently brought the stock to a new all-time high. A bullish Golden Cross now appears on the daily chart, which is sure to delight TSCO shareholders.
The last Golden Cross formed for TSCO was in early 2024, and the stock gained 30% in less than 10 months afterward.
TJX: Buying Excess Apparel Avoids Import Taxes
The TJX Companies Inc. (NYSE: TJX) owns the bargain hunter’s favorite trio of stores in TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods. TJX employs a similar business model across all three: locating overstocked or excess inventory from other retailers and purchasing it at a discount.
In this model, tariffs are actually a tailwind since they often create chaos when major retailers place orders.
These orders are placed months in advance, and as the Trump tariff policy shifts rapidly, these retailers are forced to cancel or liquidate merchandise.
Supply chain disruptions are an advantage for the TJX umbrella, which leverages the opportunity to acquire brand-name merchandise at a steep discount.
TJX shares have soared this summer thanks to a Q2 earnings beat that featured 4% comp sales and a guidance raise to $59.6 billion in full-year revenue.
As the RSI and MACD indicated, Bullish technical trends also suggest further upside. Tariffs aren’t going away anytime soon, so TJX’s momentum is likely to continue as consumers feel more pressure to bargain hunt.
One stock to replace Nvidia
One stock to replace Nvidia
3 Gold ETFs That Could Surge If the Fed Cuts Rates This Month
While the market rotates out of tech and into defensive sectors, investors could see another rotation from debt securities to precious metals this month. That’s because in his speech at Jackson Hole on Aug. 22, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell alluded to upcoming interest rate cuts at the central bank’s FOMC meeting scheduled for Sept. 16–17.
That caused stocks to rally after Powell's speech. The S&P 500 flirted with its all-time high while gaining 1.52% on the day. But investor euphoria wasn’t limited to the equities camp. The news was celebrated by gold bugs, as the precious metal historically experiences bullish price movement when investors flee fixed income due to lower yields and rotate into other safe-haven assets.
That’s something that could play out in a lower-rate environment, with gold—and gold ETFs—becoming increasingly attractive for investors if the Fed lowers its benchmark federal effect funds rate. The odds of that happening next month stand at 88.3%, according to the CME’s FedWatch Tool.
Lower Rates Aren’t the Only Bullish Factors for Gold
Since hitting its record high in April, gold has traded sideways between $3,500 to $3,180, having failed to break through resistance twice—once in June and once in July—before retreating. But as summer gives way to fall, the precious metal has tailwinds suggesting a golden opportunity.
Beyond the Fed’s soon-to-be revised monetary policy, the U.S. dollar continues to weaken amid a backdrop of tariffs, sticky inflation, and President Donald Trump’s ongoing criticism of the central bank’s chairman and its governors. As of late August, the greenback had retreated 10.69% from its year-to-date high of $109.98 to $98.22.
The U.S. dollar has a historical inverse correlation with gold. When the former weakens, the latter strengthens, and vice versa. That’s particularly relevant amid periods of creeping inflation during which gold serves as a hedge.
Ongoing geopolitical unrest is also bullish. U.S.-brokered peace talks with Russia and Ukraine have stalled, and with Israel continuing its military campaign in Gaza, safe-haven assets should continue to see rising demand.
That resulted in Swiss-based UBS Group raising its price target for gold last week to $3,600, citing persistent U.S. macroeconomic risks, de-dollarization trends, and strong investment demand for ETFs and central banks, which together are expected to drive the price of gold higher in the near-to-medium term.
So here are three gold-backed ETFs that can provide investors with exposure to gold without having to own the physical metal itself.
1. The SPDR Gold Trust
Perhaps the most well-known is the SPDR Gold Trust (NYSEARCA: GLD), which is backed by gold bullion stored in secure vaults.
With $102.72 billion in assets under management (AUM), it’s the largest gold ETF on the market, the first U.S.-listed gold ETF, and the first commodity ETF backed by a physical asset.
The GLD is also one of the best-performing gold ETFs, having gained nearly 597% since its inception on Nov. 18, 2004.
The fund is highly liquid with an average daily trading volume of 10.14 million shares, and it offers investors a manageable expense ratio of 0.40%.
Over the past 12 months, the fund has been popular among institutional investors, with inflows of $24.22 billion significantly higher than outflows of $7.88 billion. Current short interest is just 2.86% of GLD’s 333.4 million shares outstanding.
2. iShares Gold Trust
The iShares Gold Trust (NYSEARCA: IAU) is also a gold-backed ETF.
Though much smaller than the GLD at $48.41 billion in AUM, the IAU has outperformed its predecessor with a gain of more than 648% since its inception on Jan. 28, 2005.
The fund also offers sound liquidity with an average daily trading volume of 7.9 million shares.
At 0.25%, the IAU has a lower expense ratio than the GLD.
It also boasts higher institutional ownership at 59.67% versus GLD’s 42.19%, and lower short interest at just 0.92% of its 766.15 million shares outstanding—a 13.69% decrease in short interest from the month prior.
3. SPDR Gold MiniShares Trust
The newcomer of the group, the SPDR Gold MiniShares Trust (NYSEARCA: GLDM), is backed by physical gold and offers the lowest expense ratio on this list at just 0.01%.
Launched on June 25, 2018, the ETF has gained nearly 168% while amassing $16.3 billion in AUM.
While less liquid than the GLD or the IAU, the fund still sees an average daily trading volume of 3.78 million shares.
Institutional buying has outweighed institutional selling over the past 12 months, with $3.55 billion in inflows against $947.28 million in outflows.
Short interest stands at 1.66% of its 244.35 million shares outstanding.
Buffett, Gates and Bezos Quietly Dumping Stocks—Here's Why
Buffett, Gates and Bezos Quietly Dumping Stocks—Here's Why
MarketBeat Media, LLC dba TickerReport
345 N Reid Place, Suite 620, Sioux Falls, SD 57103.
No comments:
Post a Comment