Professional Investors Like Health Stocks – Including Medco Health Solutions (NYSE:MHS) and McKesson Corp. (NYSE:MCK)

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Every month The Applied Finance Group (AFG) surveys hundreds of professional investors to provide insight into what the group as a whole is thinking about the economy, markets and commodities in the months ahead. The Market Forecast Project (MFP) survey is a useful tool to give money managers an edge in their portfolio construction process, client communication and to stay updated on events that affect markets. In "Wisdom of Crowds", James Surowiecki theorizes that a group is often smarter than the smartest person in the group. Through the MFP, we are working to channel that wisdom to help participants understand the favorite investment ideas, macro-economic sentiment and stock market predictions of a large and diverse group of investment professionals.

One trend that has remained consistent through our last 7 surveys is that professional investors favor the Technology and Health sectors. Since investor sentiment has been consistently favorable toward these 2 sectors, we will be spending some time this week going over the companies that we find attractive within each sector.

Today we will provide an overview of the health sector and the 9 companies that currently look the most attractive according to key criteria that AFG uses to identify stocks likely to outperform their sector peers, including corporate performance, valuation, management quality and earnings quality, among others. Although the health care system is currently being discussed in Congress - it is uncertain if a major overhaul will take place in healthcare in the U.S. which will drastically affect companies within the sector - the 9 companies listed below all have the characteristics of companies that look likely to outperform their sector peers. All 9 of the companies look the most attractive relative to sector peers based on Valuation, Economic Margin movement, and overall Investment Opportunity Signal*. Some backtest data for the performance of these variables over the last 10 years is available by clicking here.

To stay updated on companies AFG believes are attractive investment opportunities register for ValueExpectations.com It's Fast and Free!

*variables defined

Valuation – Identifies companies with the most potential upside based on AFG’s default valuation rank.

Economic Margin (EM) Change – Economic Margin is… EM change identifies companies expected to make the biggest improvements in EMs in the upcoming year. Companies expected to improve their EMs have proven to be more likely to outperform than companies with expected declines in EMs.

Investment Opportunity – Takes into account many of the important variables that AFG uses to identify companies likely to outperform such as corporate performance, long/short term valuation upside, management’s ability to create wealth, earnings quality and model accuracy among others. An overall ranking is given based on how each company scores for each of these variables relative to sector peers.

To stay updated on companies AFG believes are attractive investment opportunities register for ValueExpectations.com It's Fast and Free!

 If you are a professional investor/money manager and would like to be a part of The Market Forecast Project... Click Here to join! Its fast and free to join!

Click Here to view the results from last month's survey and see the favorite long/short equity ideas of professional money managers.

Benefits of participation in the Market Forecast Project include:

• Understand Trends of Investor Sentiment and Incorporate MFP Forecasts to Better Position your Portfolio

• Enhance Client Communication

• Actionable Long/Short Investment Ideas to help you Outperform!!!

• Use the "Wisdom of crowds" to Gain Insight into Popular Themes and Events in the Market

To stay updated on how other professional investor's currently view the market join our Market Forecast Project survey and be among the first to receive the results.