3 Reasons Growth Investors Will Love Novartis (NVS)

Growth investors focus on stocks that are seeing above-average financial growth, as this feature helps these securities garner the market's attention and deliver solid returns. But finding a growth stock that can live up to its true potential can be a tough task.In addition to volatility, these stocks carry above-average risk by their very nature. Also, one could end up losing from a stock whose growth story is actually over or nearing its end.However, the task of finding cutting-edge growth stocks is made easy with the help of the Zacks Growth Style Score (part of the Zacks Style Scores system), which looks beyond the traditional growth attributes to analyze a company's real growth prospects.Novartis (NVS) is on the list of such stocks currently recommended by our proprietary system. In addition to a favorable Growth Score, it carries a top Zacks Rank.Studies have shown that stocks with the best growth features consistently outperform the market. And returns are even better for stocks that possess the combination of a Growth Score of A or B and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy).While there are numerous reasons why the stock of this drugmaker is a great growth pick right now, we have highlighted three of the most important factors below:Earnings GrowthArguably nothing is more important than earnings growth, as surging profit levels is what most investors are after. For growth investors, double-digit earnings growth is highly preferable, as it is often perceived as an indication of strong prospects (and stock price gains) for the company under consideration.While the historical EPS growth rate for Novartis is 7.9%, investors should actually focus on the projected growth. The company's EPS is expected to grow 15.6% this year, crushing the industry average, which calls for EPS growth of 14.8%.Impressive Asset Utilization RatioGrowth investors often overlook asset utilization ratio, also known as sales-to-total-assets (S/TA) ratio, but it is an important feature of a real growth stock. This metric exhibits how efficiently a firm is utilizing its assets to generate sales.Right now, Novartis has an S/TA ratio of 0.52, which means that the company gets $0.52 in sales for each dollar in assets. Comparing this to the industry average of 0.47, it can be said that the company is more efficient.In addition to efficiency in generating sales, sales growth plays an important role. And Novartis is well positioned from a sales growth perspective too. The company's sales are expected to grow 10.5% this year versus the industry average of 6.8%.Promising Earnings Estimate RevisionsSuperiority of a stock in terms of the metrics outlined above can be further validated by looking at the trend in earnings estimate revisions. A positive trend is of course favorable here. Empirical research shows that there is a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and near-term stock price movements.The current-year earnings estimates for Novartis have been revising upward. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year has surged 0.3% over the past month.Bottom LineWhile the overall earnings estimate revisions have made Novartis a Zacks Rank #2 stock, it has earned itself a Growth Score of B based on a number of factors, including the ones discussed above.You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.This combination indicates that Novartis is a potential outperformer and a solid choice for growth investors.Research Chief Names "Single Best Pick to Double"From thousands of stocks, 5 Zacks experts each have chosen their favorite to skyrocket +100% or more in months to come. From those 5, Director of Research Sheraz Mian hand-picks one to have the most explosive upside of all.This company targets millennial and Gen Z audiences, generating nearly $1 billion in revenue last quarter alone. A recent pullback makes now an ideal time to jump aboard. Of course, all our elite picks aren’t winners but this one could far surpass earlier Zacks’ Stocks Set to Double like Nano-X Imaging which shot up +129.6% in little more than 9 months.Free: See Our Top Stock And 4 Runners UpWant the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Novartis AG (NVS): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).Zacks Investment ResearchWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks