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Bayer is a German chemical and pharmaceutical giant, Bayer AG was founded on August 1st, 1863 by businessman Friedrich Bayer and master dyer Johann Weskott. The company is headquartered in Leverkusen Germany, where its illuminated Bayer cross logo remains a landmark icon of the city. Bayer started out selling chemical dyes and enjoyed fast growth as the nascent textile industry exploded. Shortly after, the company introduced Aspirin, a medication used to treat pain, fever, or inflammation. This product became so popular around the world that it marked Bayer’s entry into the global space.
In 1898, Bayer trademarked the drug heroin (now illegal) and marketed it as a cough suppressant. The company held the trademark until World War I, a period during which Bayer experienced widespread challenges. From 1914 to 1918, Bayer’s assets in the US, Canada and several other countries were confiscated, forcing the company to merge with several other German chemical companies to survive. The merged company was known as IG Farben, and it was not until after World War II that the companies split, and Bayer regained its identity again. Bayer operates in the following business areas: Pharmaceuticals, Consumer Health, Crop Science and Animal Health. Responsible for about 30% of Bayer’s gross revenues, Pharmaceuticals remains the company’s most profitable segment, and it focuses on research, development and marketing of prescription products as well as speciality therapeutics.
Bayer held its IPO on October 2nd, 1953 on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and is listed on all the major exchanges in Germany (Frankfurt, Berlin, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Hannover, Stuttgart and Munich) as well as in Spain (Madrid and Barcelona). In all these exchanges, it trades under the ticker symbol BAYN. Bayer has also been an active player in the mergers and acquisitions market. In fact, this has been one of the strategies it has actively employed in its global domination quest.
Its major buys include AgraQuest, Merck-Consumer Care and Dihon Pharmaceutical. In 2016, Bayer executed its biggest deal – the acquisition of Monsanto, the chemical and agricultural biotechnology giant that operates in two business segments: Seeds and Genomics, and Agricultural Productivity. It was an all-cash offer that was settled at an aggregate value of $62 billion. The deal positioned Bayer as the primary feeder of a world with a population of about 10 billion people. In addition, the resulting synergies have seen Bayer gain more responsibility in line with its mission of ‘Science for a better life’. Bayer offers a variety of products, including ethical pharmaceuticals and other health care products, agricultural products and polymers.
Bayer stock was offered at 109 marks each when the company was listed in 1953. At that time, the Deutsche Mark was the standard currency in Germany before being replaced by the euro (EUR) in 1999. Bayer has only had one stock split in its history: a 4-for-1 split on September 20th, 2017.
As of December 2018, Bayer stock was trading at circa €60 per share, with a market capitalisation of circa €55 billion. Bayer has always been on the watch list of value investors and has been a consistent performer. After a dull performance in the late 1990s, the stock bottomed out at circa €10 in March 2003 and started a multi-year rally that topped out at circa €144 in April 2015.
The stock then started retracing its bullish rally, but the Monsanto deal also weighed on the stock as investors were concerned with the debt financing as well as numerous lawsuits that were filed to prevent the successful completion of the deal. With the Monsanto deal sealed, it remains to be seen whether investors will give the stock their vote of confidence in the future. Despite any pressures on the Bayer stock, the company has maintained its generous dividend policy. Bayer has consistently been paying quarterly dividends since 1953 and averaged a dividend yield of 2.7% from 2008 to 2018. In 2017, the annual dividend payout was €2.80 per share.
As a leader in its industry, Bayer is an inspired pick for many value investors. Still, investors must consider the following factors when trading Bayer stocks:
Because Bayer operates in a dynamic and fast-paced industry, it is important to assess these factors for their short to medium term impact, as opposed to their long-term impact. Stock price moves are momentum based and assessing the short to medium term impact of the above factors can help investors pick out high probability trade opportunities.
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Bayer is a well-known German life sciences company with four different segments that touch on the pharmaceutical, consumer health, crop science, and animal health sectors. This provides a good deal of diversification, and since it is a German company trader can also benefit from some geographical diversification in their trading watch list. Shares have been trending for a number of years, but there is still a good bit of volatility in the stock that recommends it for both swing traders and day traders. If you want to take advantage of the diversification and volatility in this stock, then trading it is a good choice.
Bayer is one of the largest, if not the largest, life sciences company in the world. Because its activities span so many different aspects of the life sciences it may not be the best for trading, however that could be offset by the large trading volumes and liquidity seen from the stock. So, while we won’t call Bayer the best life sciences company for trading, we will call it an excellent life sciences company for trading. And for some traders it could well be considered the best, if the strategy being used matches well with the price action of Bayer shares.
Because of the way in which Bayer shares tend to trend we like a trading strategy that’s based on channels, and on breakouts. Traders will find many good opportunities in trading Bayer shares if they follow this type of strategy in conjunction with watching for news releases and earnings reports. Channel trading is quite easy, with the trader drawing a line along the top of the trend and also along the bottom, creating a channel. Then trades can take place as price bounces off these two channel lines. Additional trades can be taken on any breakout moves through the channel lines, where price goes quickly and strongly through a channel line.