Five Oceans Advisors Has $819,000 Holdings in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS)

Five Oceans Advisors lifted its stake in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 39.7% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 7,343 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 2,087 shares during the period. Five Oceans Advisors’ holdings in Novartis were worth $819,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in Novartis by 35.6% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 423,142 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,176,000 after purchasing an additional 111,066 shares during the period. Csenge Advisory Group raised its stake in shares of Novartis by 63.5% during the fourth quarter. Csenge Advisory Group now owns 16,395 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,595,000 after buying an additional 6,369 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in Novartis by 129.8% in the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 98,412 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,560,000 after buying an additional 55,581 shares during the period. Altrius Capital Management Inc boosted its stake in Novartis by 4.5% in the fourth quarter. Altrius Capital Management Inc now owns 77,783 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,569,000 after acquiring an additional 3,345 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in Novartis in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $225,000. 13.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Novartis Stock Down 1.1%

Novartis stock opened at $118.14 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $249.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.09, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.59. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $112.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $107.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 0.84. Novartis AG has a fifty-two week low of $96.06 and a fifty-two week high of $120.92.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The company reported $2.28 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.16. Novartis had a net margin of 23.56% and a return on equity of 37.24%. The company had revenue of $13.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.92 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.80 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Novartis AG will post 8.45 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Novartis to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $123.38.

About Novartis

Novartis AG engages in the research, development, manufacture, and marketing of healthcare products in Switzerland and internationally. The company offers prescription medicines for patients and physicians. It focuses on therapeutic areas, such as cardiovascular, renal and metabolic, immunology, neuroscience, and oncology, as well as ophthalmology and hematology.