Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC Acquires 3,614 Shares of Novartis AG $NVS

Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC lifted its stake in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 8.3% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 47,199 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,614 shares during the quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC’s holdings in Novartis were worth $5,712,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Novartis by 60.3% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,660,485 shares of the company’s stock worth $408,071,000 after buying an additional 1,377,252 shares during the period. New Vernon Capital Holdings II LLC boosted its stake in Novartis by 12,664.1% in the first quarter. New Vernon Capital Holdings II LLC now owns 1,383,244 shares of the company’s stock valued at $154,204,000 after buying an additional 1,372,407 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can grew its stake in shares of Novartis by 489.1% during the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 564,990 shares of the company’s stock worth $68,369,000 after buying an additional 469,080 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Novartis by 5.2% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,606,724 shares of the company’s stock worth $959,535,000 after purchasing an additional 422,869 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Midwest Trust Co acquired a new stake in Novartis in the second quarter valued at $32,297,000. 13.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Novartis Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of NVS opened at $130.44 on Thursday. Novartis AG has a 1-year low of $96.06 and a 1-year high of $134.00. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $128.00 and its 200 day simple moving average is $122.30. The company has a market capitalization of $275.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.82, a P/E/G ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.62.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The company reported $2.25 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.26 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $14.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.70 billion. Novartis had a net margin of 26.49% and a return on equity of 41.21%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.06 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Novartis AG will post 8.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on NVS. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Novartis in a report on Monday, October 27th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Novartis from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Novartis in a report on Thursday, November 20th. Cowen reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Novartis in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Novartis in a research report on Thursday, August 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Novartis currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $122.33.

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.