Best International Companies To Own In Right Now

Best International Companies To Own In Right Now: Omnicare Inc (OCR)

Omnicare, Inc. (Omnicare) is a healthcare services company. The Company operates in two primary businesses: Long-Term Care Group (LTC) and Specialty Care Group (SCG). Through LTC, Omnicare provides pharmaceuticals and related pharmacy and ancillary services to long-term care facilities, as well as chronic care facilities and other settings. SCG provides commercialization services for the biopharmaceutical industry in addition to end-of-life pharmaceutical care management for hospice care agencies. At December 31, 2011, LTC provided its pharmacy services in 47 states in the United States, the District of Columbia and in Canada. In September 2012, Five Star Quality Care, Inc. sold its pharmacy business to Omnicare.

Long-Term Care Group

Omnicare operates the institutional pharmacy business in North America. LTC's customers consist of skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), assisted living facilities (ALFs), independent living communities, hospitals, corre ctional facilities, and other healthcare service providers. LTC consisted of approximately 83% of the Companys total net sales during the year ended December 31, 2011 and dispensed approximately 115.1 million prescriptions. The Company provides pharmacy consulting, including monthly patient drug therapy evaluations, assist in compliance with state and federal regulations and provide clinical and health management programs (utilizing outcomes-based algorithm technology). LTC also provides a range of technology solutions based on its Omniview Web-based platform.

LTC also provides a range of other products and services, including intravenous medications and nutrition products (infusion therapy products and services), respiratory therapy services, medical supplies and equipment (including billing the Medicare Part B program for eligible patients) and clinical care planning. It also provides pharmaceutical case management services for retirees, e! mployees and depen dents. The Company purchases, repackages and dispenses presc! ription and non-prescription medication in accordance with physician orders and deliver such prescriptions to long-term care facilities for administration to individual residents (by the facilities nursing staff for SNFs).

The Company services long-term care facilities typically within a radius of approximately 150 miles of its pharmacy locations and maintain an around-the-clock, seven-day per week, on-call pharmacist service for emergency dispensing and delivery, and for consultation with the facility's staff or attending physician. The Company utilizes a unit-of-use drug distribution system. This means that its prescriptions are packaged for dispensing in individual doses. The Companys range of technologies allow Web-based access to electronic medical records, automated pharmacy billing, online medication refills and returns processing, census tracking, pre-admission medication assessment and access to the Omnicare Guidelines.

Specialty Car e Group

SCG serves the needs of biopharmaceutical manufacturers, physicians, nurses, caregivers and patients. Its services are based on five platforms: brand support services, third party logistics, patient assistance programs, specialty pharmacy and disease management for end-of-life care. In the Companys specialty pharmacy platform, it provides dispensing of specialized pharmaceuticals. These specialized drugs deal primarily with specific categories of drugs and disease states, such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, oncology and growth hormones. In its end-of-life care platform, Omnicare provides hospice care pharmaceutical management. SCG accounted for approximately 17% of the Companys total net sales during 2011.

Omnicare competes with PharMerica Corporation.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Benjamin Shepherd]

  The American long-term care industry has been growing rapidly and will continue doing! so for y! ears to come. According to a study from the US Department of Health and Human Services, more than 70 percent of Americans over the age of 65 will need long-term care services at some point in their lives. Anyone over the age of 65 has a 40 percent chance of entering a nursing home and about 20 percent of them will remain there for at least five years.
  
  The size of the 65 and older population jumped by more than 15 percent between 2000 and 2010, compared to just 9.7 percent growth in the population as a whole. That group now makes up about 13 percent of the total population and is forecast to account for more than 16 percent by the end of this decade and 20.2 percent by 2050.
  
  Those trends have spurred huge runs for real estate investment trusts (REIT) that operate assisted-living facilities, rehabilitation centers and nursing homes across the country. While the senior living REITs have been an extremely profitable play on Americas graying population, their tide is ebbing with the prospect of rising interest rates creating fears that their profitability will be dinged. That creates opportunities for value investors focused on long-term returns, but it means short-term volatility.
  
  In this context, one compelling investment now is Omnicare (NYSE: OCR), a company that provides pharmacy services to long-term care and other medical facilities. Omnicare receives prescription orders from physicians at facilities, reviews them for effectiveness and any potential interactions with other drugs the patient is receiving and then prepares the drugs in specialized individual packages for easy administration.
  
  Omnicare has consultant pharmacists who can regularly review patient charts for potential interactions and duplications or to recommend alternative drugs or formulations that can increase the effectiveness of a patients medicatio ns, while also potent

• [By Marc Bastow]

  Healthcare services provider Omnicare (OCR) raised its quarterly dividend 43% to 20 cents per shar! e, payabl! e on Dec. 24 to shareholders of record as of Dec. 16.
  OCR Dividend Yield: 1.36%

• [By Grace L. Williams]

  Finally insiders bought at Omnicare (OCR), a long-term care pharmacy provider. Now CEO/former COO Nitin Sahney bought 10,000 shares for $584,900 and CFO Robert Kraft bought 1,500 shares for $90,000. InsiderScore writes that Sahneys buy was the largest in at least 10 years at Omnicare and Krafts purchase was his first on record.

• [By Anna Prior]

  Omnicare Inc.(OCR) raised its quarterly dividend by 43% and boosted its stock buyback program by $500 million in a bid to increase shareholder value.

source from Top Penny Stocks For 2015:http://www.topstocksforum.com/best-international-companies-to-own-in-right-now-2.html