Quantbot Technologies LP Sells 62,115 Shares of Novartis AG $NVS

Quantbot Technologies LP reduced its position in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 83.0% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 12,756 shares of the company’s stock after selling 62,115 shares during the period. Quantbot Technologies LP’s holdings in Novartis were worth $1,422,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in Novartis by 5.2% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,606,724 shares of the company’s stock valued at $959,535,000 after purchasing an additional 422,869 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in Novartis by 60.3% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,660,485 shares of the company’s stock valued at $408,071,000 after purchasing an additional 1,377,252 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in Novartis by 2.2% in the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,180,281 shares of the company’s stock valued at $243,058,000 after purchasing an additional 47,690 shares during the last quarter. Scharf Investments LLC grew its stake in Novartis by 4.6% in the first quarter. Scharf Investments LLC now owns 1,258,639 shares of the company’s stock valued at $140,313,000 after purchasing an additional 55,316 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Novartis in the fourth quarter valued at about $109,739,000. 13.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have issued reports on NVS shares. Morgan Stanley upgraded Novartis from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $123.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 8th. Wall Street Zen lowered Novartis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Novartis has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $123.50.

Novartis Price Performance

Shares of NVS stock opened at $126.9410 on Friday. Novartis AG has a fifty-two week low of $96.06 and a fifty-two week high of $128.03. The firm has a market capitalization of $268.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.48, a PEG ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.82. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $119.37 and its 200-day simple moving average is $113.71.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 17th. The company reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.38 by $0.04. Novartis had a return on equity of 41.08% and a net margin of 25.64%.The business had revenue of $14.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.94 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.97 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Novartis AG will post 8.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Novartis Company Profile

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.