
Novartis’s Stock Performance following the AveXis Agreement
By Mike BensonUpdated
Novartis’s stock performance 
Novartis AG (NVS) announced an agreement and plan for a merger with AveXis on April 9, 2018. Following the recovery of major US indexes after the US-China trade war concerns—and also due to the announcement of the acquisition—Novartis AG’s ADR (American depositary receipt) reported a 1.1% rise in its price to close at $81.07 on April 9 compared to its previous close of $80.20 on April 6.
Further, the stock closed at $81.87 on April 10, 2018, a ~1.0% rise compared to its previous close.
The chart above shows a comparison of Novartis’s stock price with those of its peers over the last week. Over the last week, Novartis stock has risen ~2.2%, mainly in the last two sessions following the news of the AveXis acquisition.
Comparison with other stocks and ETF 
The First Trust Value Line Dividend ETF (FVD) has reported a 0.9% rise in its price over the last week. The price of FVD rose 0.7% to close at $29.94 on April 10 compared to its close of $29.74 on April 9.
FVD holds 5.9% of its total investments in healthcare companies. The ETF holds 0.5% in Novartis AG’s ADR, 0.6% in GlaxoSmithKline’s ADR (GSK), 0.5% in Sanofi’s ADR (SNY), and 0.5% in Johnson & Johnson (JNJ).
GlaxoSmithKline’s ADR’s price has risen ~4.3% over the last week. Its closing price was $40.98 on April 10, a 1.7% rise compared to its close of $40.29 on April 9.
Sanofi’s ADR’s price has risen ~4.1% over the last week, and its closing price was $41.22 on April 10, a 1.2% rise compared to its close of $40.73 on April 9.
Johnson & Johnson’s stock price has risen ~1.5% over the last week, and its closing price was $130.25 on April 10, a 0.6% rise compared to its close of $129.48 on April 9.
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