NVS vs. PFE, AZN, ABT, ABBV, BMY, MRK, SNY, VRTX, REGN, and ZTS
Should you be buying Novartis stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Novartis include Pfizer (PFE), AstraZeneca (AZN), Abbott Laboratories (ABT), AbbVie (ABBV), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK), Sanofi (SNY), Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX), Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (REGN), and Zoetis (ZTS). These companies are all part of the "pharmaceutical preparations" industry.
Novartis vs.
Novartis (NYSE:NVS) and Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, community ranking, valuation, media sentiment, earnings, analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership and dividends.
In the previous week, Pfizer had 29 more articles in the media than Novartis. MarketBeat recorded 35 mentions for Pfizer and 6 mentions for Novartis. Pfizer's average media sentiment score of 0.42 beat Novartis' score of 0.41 indicating that Pfizer is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Novartis pays an annual dividend of $2.27 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Pfizer pays an annual dividend of $1.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.4%. Novartis pays out 69.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Pfizer pays out 32.3% 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. Pfizer is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
8.1% of Novartis shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 67.6% of Pfizer shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.0% of Novartis shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Pfizer shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Pfizer has higher revenue and earnings than Novartis. Pfizer is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Novartis, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Novartis has a beta of 0.54, suggesting that its share price is 46% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Pfizer has a beta of 0.63, suggesting that its share price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Pfizer received 945 more outperform votes than Novartis when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 69.54% of users gave Pfizer an outperform vote while only 61.51% of users gave Novartis an outperform vote.
Pfizer has a net margin of 31.25% compared to Novartis' net margin of 13.78%. Pfizer's return on equity of 37.53% beat Novartis' return on equity.
Novartis currently has a consensus target price of $82.25, indicating a potential downside of 15.95%. Pfizer has a consensus target price of $47.33, indicating a potential upside of 25.89%. Given Pfizer's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Pfizer is more favorable than Novartis.
Summary
Pfizer beats Novartis on 18 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
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 ChartMedia Sentiment Over Time
This 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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