The stock is up more than 37% over the past 52 weeks and hence beats the S&P which has grown by 12%. It is making new highs every day and has been on a steady uptrend since February 2009 when it was around $28. The uptrend has accelerated since May 2012 when it was around $39. It is trading well above its 200 DMA of $52.20 and the 50 DMA of $57.51. The recent volumes have been tremendous as the 10 day average is significantly higher (635K) compared with the 3 month average of 493K. In addition to the capital appreciation, the company has been paying increasing dividends over several years. The current payout is around 66% and the company has been growing well. Recently, it was reported that Roche Holding AG had obtained the European approval for its breast cancer drug Perjeta. Roche is heavily committed to research on cancer drugs. The company has numerous drugs in the pipeline which are at various stages of trials / filing. Cancer research is a very competitive field with several big and small companies competing for launching drugs for various types. There are smaller companies like Senesco Technologies (SNTI) which are researching on cancer drugs which have extremely interesting mechanisms of action. Even those trials are progressing extremely well. For Roche, it is imperative for the company to come out with new drugs. In fact, this is the story of all pharma companies. Patent expirations need to be filled up with new drugs to fill the void created by declining sales. The declines are sudden because the generic drug manufacturers are always waiting to launch cheaper versions of successful drugs. The other areas of pharma research by Roche include Immunology, Ophthalmology, Virology, CardioMetabolism, Neuroscience etc. Long term success is directly dependent on the new product launches.
