NVS vs. ABT, AZN, PFE, SNY, ABBV, VRTX, REGN, BMY, GSK, and ZTS
Should you be buying Novartis stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Novartis include Abbott Laboratories (ABT), AstraZeneca (AZN), Pfizer (PFE), Sanofi (SNY), AbbVie (ABBV), Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX), Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (REGN), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), GSK (GSK), and Zoetis (ZTS). These companies are all part of the "pharmaceutical preparations" industry.
Novartis (NYSE:NVS) and Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, community ranking, risk, earnings, profitability, media sentiment, institutional ownership, dividends and analyst recommendations.
Abbott Laboratories received 391 more outperform votes than Novartis when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 69.60% of users gave Abbott Laboratories an outperform vote while only 61.42% of users gave Novartis an outperform vote.
Novartis currently has a consensus target price of $115.00, suggesting a potential upside of 18.02%. Abbott Laboratories has a consensus target price of $121.50, suggesting a potential upside of 13.90%. Given Novartis' higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Novartis is more favorable than Abbott Laboratories.
13.1% of Novartis shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 75.2% of Abbott Laboratories shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.0% of Novartis shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of Abbott Laboratories shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Novartis has higher revenue and earnings than Abbott Laboratories. Novartis is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Abbott Laboratories, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Novartis has a net margin of 31.33% compared to Abbott Laboratories' net margin of 13.96%. Novartis' return on equity of 32.15% beat Abbott Laboratories' return on equity.
In the previous week, Abbott Laboratories had 5 more articles in the media than Novartis. MarketBeat recorded 17 mentions for Abbott Laboratories and 12 mentions for Novartis. Abbott Laboratories' average media sentiment score of 0.73 beat Novartis' score of 0.32 indicating that Abbott Laboratories is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Novartis pays an annual dividend of $2.43 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Abbott Laboratories pays an annual dividend of $2.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. Novartis pays out 32.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Abbott Laboratories pays out 68.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Novartis is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Novartis has a beta of 0.54, meaning that its share price is 46% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Abbott Laboratories has a beta of 0.74, meaning that its share price is 26% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
Abbott Laboratories beats Novartis on 11 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding NVS and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Skip ChartThis chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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