AmerisourceBergen, AbbVie and Cardinal Health top Barron’s 500 list

NEW YORK — AmerisourceBergen, AbbVie and Cardinal Health earned perfect scores in the Barron’s 500 list, an exclusive ranking of the 500 largest publicly traded companies, measured by reported in sales in the latest fiscal year and whose primary stock is listed in the United States or Canada. AmerisourceBergen, AbbVie and both earned perfect “grade point averages” of 4.0, based their stocks’ return on investment and sales growth.

AmerisourceBergen repeated its No. 1 ranking. AbbVie rose to No. 2 from No. 32 last year, and Cardinal Health improved 93 slots from No. 100 to No. 7.

Also earning rankings on the top 20% of the list with drug store ties this year were Newell Brands (No. 15), J.M. Smucker (No. 41), CVS Health (No. 61), McKesson (No. 73), Biogen (No. 74), Kraft Heinz (No. 81) and Hershey (No. 97).

Referring to AmerisourceBergen, Barron’s wrote that things “might be looking up. The stock has recovered some lost ground, having returned 15% year to date. Amerisource, which doesn’t have heavy capital equipment expenses, is buying back shares. In its most recent fiscal quarter, it repurchased about $2.3 billion of common stock.”

Regarding AbbVie, the newspaper stated the company has made “good progress in immunology and oncology, where it focuses on blood cancers and solid tumors. One of its products, Imbruvica, treats chronic-lymphocytic leukemia and mantle cell lymphoma. Its sales totaled $1.8 billion last year, more than double 2015’s total.”