My Top Picks for 2022 come from our mid-cap “Best Months” stock basket; we issued our “Best Months” Seasonal MACD Buy Signal on October 8, 2021, recalls Jeffrey Hirsch, seasonal timing specialist and editor of Stock Trader's Almanac.
With large cap stocks dominating the market for much of this bull run we focused on the lower end of the market capitalization spectrum. Small caps ranged from $50 million to $1billion in market cap with mid-caps in the $1 to 5 billion range. My top picks for 2022 come from this mid-cap group.
We screen for reasonably solid valuations, revenue and earnings growth and relatively low price-to-sales and price-to-earnings ratios. Then we look for positive price and volume action as well as other constructive technical and chart pattern indications. Finally, we lean towards stocks flying under Wall Street’s radar with a below average number of analysts following them.
Pacira BioSciences (PCRX) was added to our newsletter portfolio on October 18 at $52.89. The company is the leading provider of non-opioid pain management and regenerative health solutions.
The firm is also developing innovative interventions to address debilitating conditions involving the sympathetic nervous system, such as cardiac electrical storm, chronic pain, and spasticity.
Pacira has three commercial-stage non-opioid treatments: EXPAREL®, a long-acting, local analgesia currently approved for postsurgical pain management; ZILRETTA®, an extended-release, intra-articular, injection indicated for the management of osteoarthritis knee pain, and iovera, a novel, handheld device for delivering immediate, long-acting, drug-free pain control using precise, controlled doses of cold temperature to a targeted nerve.
The company is actively expanding its portfolio with acquisition and boasts a solid balance sheet with strong growth and relatively reasonable valuations for a drug company.
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A Look Back at 2021's Top Performers
Jeffrey Hirsch offers an update on his Top Picks for 2021:
Avid Technology (AVID) was up 122% in 2021, but the digital media pioneer was closed out of our newsletter portfolio on August 4, a 132% in the portfolio. Peripheral vascular disease treatment and solution provider LeMaitre Vascular (LMAT) remains in our portfolio up 33% since it was added to our list and up 28% in 2021.