Novartis AG
NVS on NYSE. Pharmaceutical preparations. Market value $269.0bn.
This company reports once a year (it is based outside the US), so every figure comes from its annual report for the year to December 2025.
We can't read total debt from the filing, so debt is left out.
Cash flow or capital spending isn't reported, so free cash flow is unknown.
Should I look at this?
Not a fit for our list right now
Why it could be worth it
What to watch out for
See Health care stocks that passed both tests
This is not advice. Check the numbers below.
We could not compute this from the filings.
The filings do not give us enough to work this out.
The filings do not give us enough to work this out.
Quality score: not known. Price score: not known. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.
$140.79 a share, 16% above its 1-year low
Over the past year the price has ranged from $121.57 to $170.46.
Prices from Tuesday’s close (6 October).
Five years of cash, in billions
| Revenue | |||||
| Revenue | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Operating margin | |||||
| Operating margin | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Debt to equity | |||||
| Debt to equity | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Shares outstanding | |||||
| Shares outstanding | 2.12bn | 2.04bn | 1.98bn | 1.91bn | 1.91bn |
Health checks
- Free cash flow positiveNot enough data
- Accounting looks honest (Beneish)Not enough data
- Financial strength (Piotroski)Not enough data
- Profit backed by cash (accruals)Not enough data
- DebtUnknown
- Revenue growth, five yearsUnknown
- Buying back its own sharesYes, 10% fewer since 2021
Dates
- Next results (estimated)
- n/a
- Last annual report (10-K)
- 4 February 2026
- Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
- n/a
Who owns it
18 long-term investors we follow own it, up from 17 last quarter. 1,618 funds in all.
- Cullen Capital ManagementJames Cullen
- Value
- $319m
- Share of fund
- 3.1%
- Tweedy, BrowneTweedy Browne partners
- Value
- $11m
- Share of fund
- 0.8%
- First Manhattan Co.First Manhattan partners
- Value
- $8m
- Share of fund
- <0.1%
- Diamond Hill Capital ManagementRic Dillon (founder)
- Value
- $4m
- Share of fund
- <0.1%
- Beutel GoodmanBeutel Goodman team
- Value
- $3m
- Share of fund
- <0.1%
- Kahn BrothersThomas Kahn
- Value
- $2m
- Share of fund
- 0.3%
- Delphi ManagementScott Black
- Value
- $1m
- Share of fund
- 1.2%
- Gotham Asset ManagementJoel Greenblatt
- Value
- $420,480
- Share of fund
- <0.1%
- Causeway Capital ManagementSarah Ketterer
- Value
- $235,168
- Share of fund
- <0.1%
| Fund | Value | Share of that fund | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cullen Capital ManagementJames Cullen | $319m | 3.1% | |
| Dodge & CoxDodge & Cox investment committee | $119m | <0.1% | Cut |
| Scharf InvestmentsBrian Krawez | $49m | 1.6% | Cut |
| GMOJeremy Grantham | $39m | <0.1% | Cut |
| Brandes Investment PartnersCharles Brandes | $31m | 0.2% | Added |
| Glenview Capital ManagementLarry Robbins | $14m | 0.3% | New |
| Tweedy, BrowneTweedy Browne partners | $11m | 0.8% | |
| Boston PartnersBoston Partners team | $8m | <0.1% | Cut |
| First Manhattan Co.First Manhattan partners | $8m | <0.1% | |
| Diamond Hill Capital ManagementRic Dillon (founder) | $4m | <0.1% | |
| Beutel GoodmanBeutel Goodman team | $3m | <0.1% | |
| Kahn BrothersThomas Kahn | $2m | 0.3% | |
| Horizon KineticsMurray Stahl | $2m | <0.1% | Cut |
| Delphi ManagementScott Black | $1m | 1.2% | |
| Mondrian Investment PartnersMondrian team | $513,016 | <0.1% | Added |
| Gotham Asset ManagementJoel Greenblatt | $420,480 | <0.1% | |
| Causeway Capital ManagementSarah Ketterer | $235,168 | <0.1% | |
| Cambiar InvestorsBrian Barish | $203,893 | <0.1% | Cut |
Largest holders overall
- Fisher Asset Management$2.4bnAdded
- Morgan Stanley$1.4bnAdded
- Dimensional Fund Advisors LP$1.3bn
- Primecap Management$1.0bnCut
- Loomis Sayles & CO L P$821mCut
- Bank of America$769m
- Franklin Resources$510mCut
- BlackRock$478mAdded
- Goldman Sachs Group$467mCut
- Northern Trust$438m
From 13F filings for the quarter ended 30 June 2026.
Big holders and activists
1 investor owns more than 5%.
- 6.4%Since 30 September 2024
| Holder | Stake | Since | |
|---|---|---|---|
6.4% | 30 September 2024 |
From Schedule 13D and 13G filings: anyone owning more than 5% must file one.
What insiders did
We have no insider filings for this company yet.
From Form 4 filings: insiders must report trades in their own company's shares within two days.
Warning signs in its filings
Problems the company itself reported to the SEC, in its own words.
Novartis AG doesn’t file a US annual report (10-K), so we haven’t checked it.
A 10-K is the yearly report every US company files with the SEC. An 8-K is a short notice of a big event.
What could go wrong
Cheap for a reason is the question the numbers cannot answer.
Whether the price already reflects the risks is what the deep dive is for.
The deep dive
Everything above is arithmetic on public filings. The deep dive reads the last ten years of annual reports, the proxy statements, and the earnings calls, then argues the case the way Buffett, Klarman, and Hohn would, and checks every claim against the source.
- What the business is worth, as a range, and the margin of safety at today’s price
- Prices to start buying, buy, and buy hard
- The three things that would make this a mistake
- Every number footnoted to the filing it came from
Your first deep dive is free.
Not advice. Numbers on this page come from SEC filings and are updated each night; prices are updated again after the US market closes. The five-year figures are rounded.