3 No-Brainer Healthcare Stocks to Buy With $200 Right Now

Healthcare stocks have something to offer every investor. If you're looking for high growth, you can try an innovative biotech that may launch game-changing products down the road. If you're more of a cautious investor, you can aim for a well-established and diversified player that pays dividends and is known for steady earnings growth. Finally, investors looking for recovery stories also may find opportunity here; as pharma companies lose exclusivity on key products, they often reinvest in their pipelines or seize external opportunities, and this can lead to a new era of growth.

Ideally, an investor would own one of each of these sorts of companies to maximize potential for gains and minimize risk. And right now, with only $200, you can get in on three such stories. They make great no-brainer buys today at their current prices and are excellent stocks to hold onto for the long term. Let's check them out.

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1. Pfizer

Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) makes a great recovery-story buy today. The big pharma company saw annual revenue soar to a record $100 billion in earlier pandemic days, driven by demand for its COVID-19 products. But in more recent times, declines there have weighed on revenue, and investors also have worried about losses of exclusivity that concern older blockbusters.

But Pfizer has taken major steps to turn this around, cutting costs, acquiring and integrating oncology company Seagen, and investing in its own internal pipeline. The efforts are bearing fruit. In the recent earnings report, Pfizer reported double-digit quarterly revenue growth, said it was on track to deliver cost savings of $4.5 billion by the end of the year, and reaffirmed its 2025 annual guidance.

Pfizer also said that in the past year it won more than a dozen product approvals and generated eight significant phase 3 trial readouts. This should translate into additional sources of revenue in the quarters to come. And Pfizer reported growth across the oncology products it gained through the Seagen acquisition.

Today, trading for only 8 times forward earnings estimates, Pfizer is a no-brainer addition to any healthcare portfolio.

2. Abbott Laboratories

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT), thanks to its diversification across four businesses and its long dividend growth track record, adds security to your portfolio. The company operates in the following areas: diagnostics, medical devices, nutrition, and established pharmaceuticals.

I like this structure because, if one area faces headwinds, another area could compensate, and this limits negative impact on growth. (For example, in recent times, declines in coronavirus testing have weighed on the diagnostics business, but the medical devices business has been reporting double-digit revenue growth.) And overall, excluding the impact of coronavirus testing, fourth-quarter sales climbed 10% to $11 billion.

You also can count on Abbott for dividend payments. As a Dividend King, it's increased its annual payment for more than 50 consecutive years. This suggests rewarding shareholders is important to the company. This and the fact that Abbott delivers more than $6 billion in free cash flow suggest Abbott will stick with this policy.

So, this healthcare giant makes a fantastic investment for potential stock performance over time and for passive income along the way.

3. Viking Therapeutics

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ: VKTX) is a biotech company working on potential treatments for metabolic and endocrine disorders. And what's attracted a lot of attention over the past year is Viking's weight-loss drug program. The company is developing VK2735 in injectable and oral formulations. The injectable is set to start a phase 3 trial in Q2, and the oral version recently entered a phase 2 trial.

Investors are excited about Viking's investigational drugs for two main reasons. First, they're in the same class as today's top-selling weight-loss drugs, so it's clear doctors and patients are interested in this sort of treatment. Big pharma rivals Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk have seen tremendous demand for their commercialized products. VK2735 is a dual GIP/GLP-1 receptor agonist, a type of drug that interacts with hormones involved in the digestive process. And second, Viking's candidate has generated promising results in trials so far, suggesting it could eventually carve out share in the market.

Viking stock soared last year when it first reported VK2735 results but since has given back a lot of those gains. Any positive trial news in the coming quarters and potential commercialization down the road could serve as major catalysts for share performance though. So now is a great time to get in on this high-potential stock.

Should you invest $1,000 in Pfizer right now?

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Adria Cimino has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Abbott Laboratories and Pfizer. The Motley Fool recommends Novo Nordisk and Viking Therapeutics. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.