Sifting through countless of stocks in the Pharmaceuticals industry can be tedious, and sometimes two stocks are just too similar to judge which is the better investment. If you’re on the fence about investing in Novartis AG or Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc because you’re not sure how they measure up, it’s important to compare them on a few factors before making your decision.

Read on to learn how Novartis AG and Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc compare based on key financial metrics to determine which better meets your investment needs.

About Novartis AG and Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc

Novartis AG researches, develops, manufactures, distributes, markets, and sells pharmaceutical medicines in Switzerland and internationally. The company offers Entresto, an angiotensin receptorneprilysin inhibitor to treat symptomatic chronic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF); Cosentyx to treat plaque psoriasis, pso riatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, and nonradiographic axial spondy loarthritis; Kisqali, a selective oral cyclin dependent inhibitor of kinases 4 and 6 (CDK4/6); Promacta/Revolade to treat immune thrombocytopenia (ITP), thrombocytopenia, and patients with severe aplastic anemia (SAA); Tafinlar+Mekinist, an oral combination therapy to treat patients with certain types of cancers; and Jakavi for the treatment of myelofibrosis, polycythemia vera, and acute or chronic graftversushost disease (GvHD). It also provides Tasigna to treat philadelphia chromosomepositive chronic myeloid leukemia in the chronic and/or accelerated phase; Xolair for the treatment of allergic asthma and nasal polyps or severe chronic rhinosi nusitis with nasal polyps; Ilaris to treat fever syndromes, Still’s disease, and acute gouty arthritis; Pluvicto to treat prostatespecific membrane anti genpositive metastatic castrationresistant prostate cancer; Sandostatin SC and Sandostatin LAR to treat acromegaly carcinoid tumors and other types of functional gastro intestinal and pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors; Zolgensma for the treatment of genetic root cause of spinal muscular atrophy; Lucentis; Leqvio to reduce LDL cholesterol; Lutathera; Scemblix; and Fabhalta. The company focuses on therapeutic areas, such as cardiovascular, renal and metabolic, immunology, neuroscience, oncology, and hematology. It has a license and collaboration agreement with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to develop, manufacture, and commercialize Leqvio (inclisiran), a therapy to reduce LDL cholesterol. Novartis AG was incorporated in 1996 and is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland.

Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc identifies, develops, and commercializes pharmaceutical products in the United States, Europe, and internationally. The company offers Xywav to treat cataplexy or excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) with narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia (IH); Epidiolex for seizures associated with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS), Dravet syndrome (DS), or tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC); Rylaze for the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia or lymphoblastic lymphoma; Enrylaze to treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia and lymphoblastic lymphoma; Zepzelca for the treatment of metastatic small cell lung cancer with disease progression on or after platinum-based chemotherapy; Ziihera to treat HER2-positive biliary tract cancers; Modeyso for the treatment of diffuse midline glioma harboring an H3 K27M mutation; and Defitelio to treat severe veno-occlusive disease. It also develops Zanidatamab in Phase 3 trial to treat HER2-positive gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma (GEA) and biliary tract cancers (BTC); Dordaviprone to treat H3 K27M-mutant diffuse glioma; and Vyxeos for the treatment of newly-diagnosed therapy-related acute myeloid leukemia. In addition, the company is developing Zanidatamab to treat neoadjuvant and adjuvant breast cancer; Vyxeos for the treatment of High-risk MDS, newly diagnosed untreated patients with high-risk AML, and De novo intermediate or adverse risk AML stratified by genomics; and JZP3507 to treat pheochromocytoma and paraganglioma that are in Phase 2 clinical trials. Further, it develops JZP815 to treat Raf and Ras mutant tumors; JZP898 for the IFN INDUKIN molecule in solid tumors; and JZP047 to treat absence epilepsy that are in Phase 1 clinical trials. The company collaboration agreements with Redx Pharma plc, Autifony Therapeutics Limited, Zymeworks Inc., Sumitomo Pharma Co., Ltd., Werewolf Therapeutics, Inc; and AbCellera Biologics Inc. Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland.

Latest Pharmaceuticals and Novartis AG, Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc Stock News

As of September 11, 2026, Novartis AG had a $262.0 billion market capitalization, compared to the Pharmaceuticals median of $609.5 million. Novartis AG’s stock is NA in 2026, NA in the previous five trading days and up 8.38% in the past year.

Currently, Novartis AG’s price-earnings ratio is 20.7. Novartis AG’s trailing 12-month revenue is $56.7 billion with a 22.5% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 0.8%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $8.848 per share for the current fiscal year. Novartis AG currently has a 3.5% dividend yield.

Currently, Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc’s price-earnings ratio is 16.8. Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc’s trailing 12-month revenue is $4.6 billion with a 20.4% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 15.5%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $25.021 per share for the current fiscal year. Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc does not currently pay a dividend.

How We Compare Novartis AG and Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc Stock Grades

Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data and the knowledge and time to sift through it all, make sense of financial ratios, read income statements and analyze recent stock movements. AAII created A+ Investor, a robust data suite that condenses data research in an actionable and customizable way suitable for investors of all knowledge levels, to help investors streamline and work through such data.

AAII’s proprietary stock grades come with A+ Investor. These offer intuitive A‐F grades for each of five key investing factors: value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions and quality. Here, we’ll take a closer look at Novartis AG and Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc’s stock grades to see how they measure up against one another.

Learn more about A+ Investor here!

Sign Up to Receive a Free Special Report Showing How A+ Grades Can Help You Make Smarter Investment Decisions

Novartis AG and Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc Stock Value Grades

Company	Ticker	Value
Novartis AG	NVS	D
Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc	JAZZ	C

Successful stock investing involves buying low and selling high, so stock valuation is an important consideration for stock selection.

Buying stocks that are going to go up typically means buying stocks that are undervalued in the first place, although momentum investors may argue that point.

AAII’s A+ Investor Value Grade derives from a stock’s value score. The Value Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of the price-to-sales ratio, price-earnings ratio, enterprise-value-to-EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) ratio, shareholder yield, price-to-book-value ratio and price-to-free-cash-flow ratio. The score is variable, meaning it can consider all six ratios or, should any of the six ratios not be valid, the remaining ratios that are valid. To be assigned a Value Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) ratio and corresponding ranking for at least two of the six valuation ratios.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are a good value and so on.

Novartis AG has a Value Score of 32, which is Expensive. Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc has a Value Score of 51, which is Average.

The Value Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither Novartis AG or Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc has a high enough value grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors who are considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolio. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if Novartis AG or Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc is the better investment when it comes to value.

Novartis AG and Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc Growth Grades

Company	Ticker	Growth
Novartis AG	NVS	C
Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc	JAZZ	A

The foundation of growth investing is seeking out stocks of companies exhibiting strong, consistent and prolonged growth that is expected to continue into the future.

In order to compute the growth score and assign it a letter grade, the percentile ranks for each of three components‐consistency of annual sales growth, five-year sales growth rankings adjusted for extreme levels, and consistency of positive annual cash from operations‐must be determined. These three rank figures are added together, and the sum is ranked against the entire stock universe to arrive at a company’s Growth Score to create an equal distribution of grades.

The companies in the bottom 20% of the stock universe receive Growth Grades of F, considered to be very weak, while those in the top 20% receive A grades, which are considered very strong.

Novartis AG has a Growth Score of 56, which is Average. Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc has a Growth Score of 89, which is Very Strong.

The Growth Grade Winner: Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc

As you can clearly see from the Growth Grade breakdown above, Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc has a more attractive growth grade than Novartis AG. For investors who focus solely on how a company is growing relative to other companies in the same industry, Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc could be a good stock to add to their portfolio. However, it’s important for investors to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

Novartis AG and Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc’s Momentum Grades

Company	Ticker	Momentum
Novartis AG	NVS	C
Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc	JAZZ	A

Momentum grades help to uncover stocks experiencing anomalously high rates of return; research finds that stocks with high relative levels of momentum tend to outperform, whereas those with low levels of momentum tend to continue underperforming. Momentum is based on the price change of a stock over a specified period relative to all other stocks.

Typically, AAII looks at the weighted relative strength over the trailing four quarters. The weighted four-quarter relative strength rank is the relative price change for each of the past four quarters. The most recent quarterly price change is given a weight of 40% and each of the three previous quarters are given a weighting of 20%.

Novartis AG has a Momentum Score of 43, which is Average. Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc has a Momentum Score of 85, which is Very Strong.

The Momentum Grade Winner: Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc

As you can clearly see from the Momentum Grade breakdown above, Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc is considered to have stronger momentum compared to Novartis AG. For those specifically looking for companies that have stronger momentum compared to other companies in the same industry, Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc could be a good stock to invest in. However, it’s important for investors to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

Other Novartis AG and Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc Grades

In addition to Growth, Value and Momentum, A+ Investor also provides grades for Estimate Revisions and Quality.

Earnings estimate revisions scores take into account the magnitude of a company’s earnings surprise in its last two reported fiscal quarters. Often, surprises beget further surprises‐or at least continued sales growth (the exact opposite is generally true, too).

AAII’s A+ Investor Quality Grade comes from the ranking of key metrics. Specifically, the quality grade is the percentile rank of the composite of return on assets (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), gross profit relative to assets, buyback yield, change in total liabilities to assets, accruals, Z double prime bankruptcy risk (Z) score and F-Score.

These 2 key factors, when combined with the above, provide a holistic view into a particular stock. Further, by joining A+ Investor you can see whether Novartis AG and Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc pass any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.

So, Which Is the Better Investment, Novartis AG or Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc Stock?

Overall, Novartis AG stock has a Value Score of 32, Growth Score of 56 and Momentum Score of 43.

Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc stock has a Value Score of 51, Growth Score of 89 and Momentum Score of 85.

Comparing Novartis AG and Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc’s grades, scores and metrics can act as a solid basis to determine whether they may be a good investment or not. You’ll also want to look at your portfolio’s asset allocation as well as your risk tolerance and financial goals to see if either of these stocks would make a good fit for you. AAII can help you figure out which investments align with your individual needs and preferences.

Investors are encouraged to do their own due diligence and research. In this way, individuals can effectively become managers of their own assets‐without having to rely on others for financial independence. You can count on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis.

A+ Investor adds to our qualitative teaching with a powerful data suite to help you whittle down investment choices to find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs.

AAII Disclaimer

We make no representations or warranties that any investor will, or is likely to, achieve profits similar to those shown, because past, hypothetical or simulated performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Before making an investment decision, you should consider your circumstances and whether the information on our content is applicable to your situation. This information was prepared in good faith, and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. The full disclaimer can be read here.