8 Oppenheimer Analysts Choose Their Favorite Healthcare Stocks

In a recent report, Oppenheimer asked analysts that cover different areas of the stock market each to choose his or her single top stock pick in the space based on the company's fundamentals. Here are the stocks that Oppenheimer's eight analysts in the healthcare sector chose as top picks. 1. Yigal Nochomovitz, Ph.D. (biotechnology): Relypsa Inc RLYP Nochomovitz sees FDA approval of Patiromer coming in the second half of 2015 and forecasts more than $1 billion in peak worldwide sales for the drug. 2. Christpher Marai, Ph.D. (biotechnology): Xencor Inc XNCR Marai praises the company's "potentially best-in-class platform," which includes two partnered products in Phase II studies, a wholly-owned product in a Phase I trial, five additional early-stage products and seven total collaborations. 3. Ling Wang (biotechnology): Rockwell Medical Inc RMTI Wang expects a fast adoption of Triferic following market launch and believes that the drug will fill a previously unmet medical need for CKD patients on dialysis. 4. Akiva Felt (bio & specialty pharmaceuticals): Intercept Pharmaceuticals Inc ICPT Felt believes that the company's major asset, obeticholic acid, has well-defined commercial potential and the stock offers an extremely favorable risk/reward balance at its current share price. 5. Bret Jones, CFA (healthcare IT & distribution): HMS Holdings Corp HMSY Jones believes that the company is well-positioned to capitalize on the secular trend in healthcare reform, including improper medical claim payments. 6. Michael Wiederhorn, CFA (healthcare providers) UnitedHealth Group Inc UNH Wiederhorn believes shareholders will continue to benefit from the company's diversification, growth exposure and elite management team. 7. Steven Lichtman (medical devices) Medtronic PLC MDT Lichtman sees the synergy opportunities provided by the Covidien acquisition leading to 10 percent earnings growth over the next several years. 8. Rohit Vanjani (specialty and generic pharmaceuticals) OvaScience Inc OVAS Vanjani is predicting FDA approval for AUGMENT past 2018 but is anticipating its marketing will begin in select foreign countries much sooner.