Actavis PLC's (NYSE: ACT ) stock just keeps climbing. Over the past two years, the share price has jumped by an astounding 230%.
Even before its recent acquisition of Allergan (NYSE: AGN ) , which, at $66 billion, was the biggest healthcare deal in six years, the generic-drug company has transformed itself from a small fish in a crowded pond into a major pharmaceutical contender. Looking back almost five years, when Actavis was called Watson Pharmaceuticals, the company has streaked up more than 625%. With that kind of stellar performance, a lot of people would consider Actavis already a "great" company, and due for a breather.
Those people might be forgetting about the company's brash CEO, Brent Saunders, whomForbes recently called "the hottest executive in the global pharmaceutical business." Saunders has always been impatient to do more.
In fact, to hear Saunders tell it, he rescued Allergan from a hostile takeover by rival pharmaceutical company Valeant Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: VRX ) , and activist investor William Ackman, for only one reason: He intends to use the megamerger as a springboard to create a revolutionary new kind of drug company.
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