Billionaire Steve Cohen’s SAC Owns Nearly 8% of Zoetis Inc (ZTS)

However, earnings were down in the first quarter of 2013 versus a year earlier and so we think that we’d avoid it at least for now. Recent reports show a rise in both sales and net income at IDEXX, but investors have already incorporated expectations of high future growth in the stock price and so the trailing and forward P/Es are 27 and 23 respectively- which seems a bit high for us to get involved.

We’d consider Merck on that basis, but would be a bit concerned about the degree to which its valuation depends on future earnings growth. In fact, right now analysts seem to be expecting significant earnings growth at a number of these companies, including Zoetis Inc (NYSE:ZTS) itself, and with financial performance not looking good in a number of cases we’d be wary of treating any of these stocks as value plays.

Disclosure: I own no shares of any stocks mentioned in this article.