Health-care stocks have been among the best performers since the market bottomed in March.
The XLV health care ETF now sits less than 3% below its January record.
Mark Tepper, president of Strategic Wealth Partners, is backing one of the stocks as the sector makes its way back to highs.
“My favorite would be Bristol-Myers,” Tepper told CNBC’s “Trading Nation” on Wednesday. “Bristol Myers has lagged the health-care sector by about 6% this year. The reason I like it is it is a pure play on cancer — let’s not forget cancer is still the number one medical problem in the world.”
Tepper said a rebound in cancer screening and treatment as the coronavirus pandemic eases should benefit Bristol-Myers. The stock’s fundamentals also appeal to Tepper.
“The valuation is cheap. The stock is trading at 10 times forward earnings with a [price-to-earnings growth] ratio of less than 1. They’ve got a strong pipeline and they’re finally getting their swagger back as well,” he said.
Mark Newton, president of Newton Advisors, has a different health stock on his watch list.
“Merck is one of the pharmas that has been underperforming of late and now recently started to show a lot of signs of good technical strength. We have actually broken a four-month downtrend in the stock,” Newton said during the same segment.