Your stocks to watch for the week ahead include five medical stocks — UnitedHealth, Centene, Shockwave Medical, Lantheus and Bristol Myers Squibb.
Most of those stocks are working on or have cleared bases.
Medical stocks are defensive growth names, sometimes tremendous growth.
UnitedHealth Stock
UnitedHealth fell 0.8% to 495.83 in Friday's stock market trading, back below its 50-day line. But shares jumped 9.6% for the week, rebounding from their 200-day line. UNH stock is working on a double-bottom base with a 507.35 buy point.
The health-insurance giant, like most of the other medical stocks to watch here, has strong ratings from IBD. Shares have a 93 Composite Rating. Their EPS Rating is 89.
UnitedHealth stock was a recent IBD Stock of the Day. The company's Optum business has helped drive earnings growth, aided by services that make money based on results rather than services.
Centene Stock
Centene stock was down 0.8% to 82.95 on Friday, but up 8.7% for the week. Like UnitedHealth, shares are in a double-bottom base with an 87.44 buy point. But CNC stock is holding above its 50-day line. A move above Thursday's intraday high of 84.28 would break a trendline from the late April high.
Centene, a large provider of health care through Medicaid and Medicare, recently raised its full-year earnings outlook. Its board also OK'd a $3 billion increase to its share buyback program.
CNC stock has a 96 Composite Rating and a 93 EPS Rating. Shares were testing support at their 50-day line.
Shockwave Medical Stock
Shockwave Medical was up 6.3% to 197.69 on Friday. Investors could view that as clearing a 194.41 buy point from a cup-with-handle base going back early April. SWAV stock surged 25% for the week.
Shockwave stock has a 90 Composite Rating. That rating is the lowest of any of the medical stocks to watch here, but it's still strong. Its EPS Rating is 76.
Shockwave makes technology intended to increase blood flow by using sound waves to fracture and weaken layers of calcification in arteries. The company turned a per-share profit last year, and earnings have grown since.
Lantheus Stock
Lantheus stock rose 2.5% to 62.82 on Friday. Shares are hitting resistance below their 50-day line, after a big run earlier this year. The stock needs to consolidate longer to form a definitive pattern.
Shares have a 98 Composite Rating and a 75 EPS Rating.
Lantheus makes imaging diagnostics products, such as imaging agents and other technology, along with therapeutics and artificial intelligence to help medical staff track and fight conditions like cancer in patients.
Bristol Myers Squibb
Bristol Myers Squibb rose 1.6% to 78.96 on Friday, jumping 7% for the week. BMY stock is breaking out past a recent consolidation with a 78.71 entry. Shares are still above their 50-day line.
As with UnitedHealth, Bristol Myers Squibb was also a recent Stock Of The Day. BMY stock has a 96 Composite Rating.
The large pharma company recently announced a plan to buy Turning Point Therapeutics, a drugmaker trying to develop medications that target cancer, for $4.1 billion. It has also broadened its alliance with Immatics, another developer of cancer-fighting therapeutics.
