Eight stock picks to play one of the healthiest corners of the market
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Eight stock picks to play one of the healthiest corners of the marketThe healthcare sector of the U.S. stock market as a whole is cheaply priced, which can make it attractive to investors concerned that the S&P 500 has gotten too expensive several years into a bull market. But this is also a sector in which deep industry knowledge can be particularly important for fund managers’ investment selection and timing.The S&P 500 healthcare sector trades at a forward price/earnings ratio of 18.2. That is the component stocks’ prices divided by consensus 12-month earnings-per-share estimates among analysts polled by FactSet, weighted by market capitalization. That forward P/E is a 12% premium to the sector’s average 10-year forward P/E of 16.3. The full S&P 500 SPX has a forward P/E of 22.4, which is a 19% premium to its 10-year average forward P/E of 18.8.About the AuthorPhilip van Doorn writes the Deep Dive investing column for MarketWatch. Follow him on Twitter @PhilipvanDoorn.Copyright © 2025 MarketWatch, Inc. All rights reserved.