Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis (NVS 0.80%) has earned a respected four-star ranking.
With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Novartis and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.
Novartis facts
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Headquarters (founded) |
Basel, Switzerland (1895) |
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Market Cap |
$179.7 billion |
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Industry |
Pharmaceuticals |
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Trailing-12-Month Revenue |
$57.8 billion |
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Management |
CEO Joseph Jimenez CFO Harry Kirsch |
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Return on Equity (average, past 3 years) |
14.9% |
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Cash/Debt |
$6.0 billion/$20.9 billion |
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Dividend Yield |
3.4% |
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Competitors |
Merck Pfizer Sanofi |
Sources: S&P Capital IQ and Motley Fool CAPS.
On CAPS, 97% of the 1,512 members who have rated Novartis believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward.
Just yesterday, one of those Fools, TMFTailwind, succinctly summed up the Novartis bull case for our community:
[Novartis] has an enviable strategic position with a nice pipeline of late-stage products. Diversified product lines buffer the company from difficulties in any one segment. [Novartis] also benefits from increased adoption of generic drugs. Steady, defensive big pharma play with a good margin of safety at current levels.
