A portfolio of stocks I started and named Volio Folio, September 3, will eventually hold 52 dividend dogs. Volio is the fifth portfolio I've built (at a one dividend dog per-week pace) since 2014. Five portfolios = V for Volio!

I'm reviewing today the fifth of five healthcare stocks striving to be picked to join the Volio folio collection. This would be the fifth pick for Volio!

This healthcare collection includes ten industries all related to testing, diagnosing and treating what ails us. Healthcare industries are: biotechnology; diagnostics & research; drug manufacturers - major and - specialty & generic; healthcare plans; healthcare facilities; medical care; medical devices; medical distribution; medical supplies.

My subject today is a large-cap drug manufacturer-major named Novartis AG  Their trading ticker symbol is NVS. I last reported on Novartis May 30th and selected it then for my Ivy portfolio.

Novartis AG develops and manufactures healthcare products through two segments: Innovative Medicines and Sandoz.

It generates the vast majority of its revenue from Innovative Medicines segment consisting of global business franchises in ophthalmology, neuroscience, immunology, respiratory, cardio-metabolic, and established medicines.

The company sells its products globally, with the United States representing close to one-third of total sales.

Novartis AG has collaboration agreements with Xencor; Surface Oncology; Ligand Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Amgen; University of California, Berkeley; Bristol-Myers Squibb; IBM Watson Health; Allergan plc; Science 37, Inc.; Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; PEAR Therapeutics; Pfizer; Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc.; TRIO; Verily; and Pharming Group N.V.

The company was founded in 1895 and is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland.

I use three key data points to gauge dividend-paying equities or funds like Novartis AG:

(1) Price

(2) Dividends

(3) Returns

Besides those three, several other keys will finally unlock an equity or fund in which to invest, or not.

Those three basic keys, however, best tell whether a company has made, is making, and will make money.

NVS Price

Novartis's price per share closed at $85.18 yesterday. A year ago its price was $85.85. In the past year, its price dropped $0.67 or 0.7%.

Assuming Novartis's stock trades in the range of $78.00 to $96.00 this next year, Novartis's recent $85.18 price could rise by $9.82 and get to $95.00 by early October 2020, if upward momentum takes charge.

NVS Dividends

Novartis's latest declared annual dividend was $2.83 paid March 23th.

That $2.83 annual dividend yields 3.32% based on yesterday's $85.18 closing price.

NVS Gains?

Adding the $2.83 annual estimated dividend to my $9.82 estimate of Novartis's price upside shows a $12.65 potential gross gain, per share, which will be reduced by costs to trade these shares.

Say we put a little over $1,000.00 today into Novartis AG at its recent $85.18 price, we'd buy 12 shares of Novartis AG.

A $10 broker fee paid half at purchase and half at sale will cost us about $0.83 per share.

Subtract that $0.83 brokerage cost from the estimated $12.65 gross estimated gain leaves a net gain of $11.82 X 12 shares = $141.84 or a 14.15% net gain on a $1,022.16 investment.

Therefore, Novartis AG, whose trading ticker symbol is NVS now shows a possible net gain of 14.15% including a 3.32% dividend yield. It could be more, it could be less.

The above speculation is based on past year performance. The actual results remain to be seen to learn if Novartis AG is worth your time and money.