"Irish corporate tax rates are among the lowest in the world because the government tends to tax consumption rather than production," explains Dave Dyer, who poins ouot, "Irish corporations enjoy tax rates as low as 10%, and that has to be a competitive advantage in the global market."
In his The Dave Dyer Newsletter, he looks to one favorite Irish firm, Icon (NASDAQ: ICLR), a contract research organization (CROs) which conducts research required for clinical trials for pharmaceutical products.
Dyers notes, "The market for CROs is very strong right now because many extremely profitable drugs will be losing patent protection in the next few years and there is lots of pressure to find some replacements.
"ICON is one of the few CROs capable of providing services on a global basis. This gives them the advantage is of running clinical trials in multiple countries at once. Also, regulators actually prefer worldwide trials because they normally provide more ethnic diversity in the subject population."
"With a market cap of only $1.9 billion, ICLR is smaller than some of its competitors but is growing more rapidly. For the past seven quarters, profits have been up between 40% and 75% per quarter, while sales have been up between 19% and 46%. This kind of growth can only happen when a company is doing a lot of things right in a strong market."
Icon is also a new buy recommendation from Harry Domash, editor of Winning Investing. He explains, "Icon designs studies, recruits investigators, manages the trials, and analyzes the resulting data. Icon also aids in preclinical developmental activities.
"The company is benefiting from an accelerating trend by drug makers to focus on drug discovery efforts and to outsource all services considered 'noncore, including clinical trials.
"Icon is profitable, cash flow positive, and carries relatively low-debt. Current Icon will report its December quarter results on February 21. Analysts expect earnings of $0.50 per share, up 28% vs. year-ago. Buy to hold 6 to 18 months."
Each day, Steven Halpern's TheStockAdvisors.com offers the latest market commentary and favorite investment ideas from the nation's leading financial newsletter advisors.
