On Tuesday, highly rate Novartis got an upgrade to its Relative Strength (RS) Rating, from 67 to 72. The bump up came amid strong sales of the company's breakthrough cancer treatment and a first quarter beat on sales of two blockbuster drugs.
An RS Rating upgrade to 72 means Novartis topped more than 70% of all other stocks for price performance over the past year. It puts Novartis within short reach of the benchmark 80 RS Rating. Research shows that the market's biggest winners typically have an RS Rating north of 80 in the early stages of their moves. See if Novartis can continue to rebound and clear that threshold.
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Novartis Stock Among Top 11% Overall
Novartis blazed a trail for cancer treatment with targeted treatments that send Novartis' prostate cancer drug, Pluvicto, directly to cancer cells, saving surrounding cells from damage. Additionally, sales for Novartis' blockbuster inflammatory conditions treatment Cosentyx and heart failure treatment Entresto jumped 23% and 34% respectively, in the first quarter.
Further, among its other key ratings Novartis stock boasts an 89 Composite Rating, putting it in the top 11% of stocks overall. It has an 85 Earnings Per Share Rating and a bullish A- Accumulation/Distribution Rating, showing that institutional investors such as mutual funds and insurance company funds are fairly heavy buyers of its stock.
The number of funds holding Novartis stock rose from 288 last September to 305 in March.
In Buy Range For Cup-With-Handle Base
Switzerland-based Novartis is within a buy range after moving past a 103.55 entry in a cup with handle. The proper buying range extends to 5% above the initial entry. Tuesday afternoon Novartis stock was virtually unchanged from the same time the day before, at about 107.
Top and bottom line growth moved higher in the company's most recent quarter. Earnings were up 17% to $1.80 per share, compared to 10% growth in the prior quarter. Revenue increased 7% to $12.1 billion, up from 10% growth. The company is expected to report its latest numbers on or around July 18.
Novartis stock holds the No. 2 rank among its peers in the 32-stock Medical-Ethical Drugs industry group. Novo Nordisk is the top-ranked stock in the group.
IBD's proprietary Relative Strength Rating measures market leadership by showing how a stock's price movement over the last 52 weeks compares to that of the other stocks in our database.
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