Is Zoetis a Good Investment For the End of 2022?

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As investors, we always like to identify trends happening in the world around us. Most are obvious: cashless payments, the rise of cloud computing, electric cars. However, one underlying global megatrend we love to track here at MyWallSt is the rise of pet care.

This was already a craze long before COVID-19 became an everyday reality, but lockdown certainly sped things up. According to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), more than 23 million American households -- nearly 1 in 5 nationwide -- adopted a pet during the pandemic.

And as the saying goes, these pets are for life, not just for ChristmasOVID. In fact, 91% of U.S. "pet parents" consider their pets to be family members and 81% consider them as equal members of the family.

This all means big business for the companies involved in the industry. Fortune Business Insights has the global pet-care market set to grow at a 6% CAGR to $326 billion by 2028. A company I've highlighted to take advantage of this growing market is Zoetis.

Zoetis is the world's largest animal-care company. It manufactures medicine and vaccinations for pets and livestock. Initially a subsidiary of Pfizer called Pfizer Animal Health, it was spun off in 2013 to become its own independent company. It serves two major markets -- companion animals (pets) and production animals (livestock). Companion animals make up about 64% of total revenue, while in the U.S. they account for 76%.

The company boasts a dominant market position in companion animals, cattle, fish, and pigs and 13 of its products generate more than one-third of total animal health sales. Constantly innovating, the company has introduced close to 1,000 new products and updates to existing products over the past five years. Products range from parasitics, dermatological products, arthritis treatments for cats and dogs, and respiratory antibiotics in cattle, to name a few.

There is a lot to like about Zoetis' business model. The purchasing power in the animal space is a lot more fragmented than in human care, with the absence of government payers or larger managed care firms and health insurance companies. Buyers instead are farmers, vets, and pet owners, meaning Zoetis enjoys more pricing power. Its scale and existing relationships become much more important in a fragmented buyer market too, giving it a competitive advantage over new entrants.

And that's only the beginning...