Checchi Capital Advisers LLC Has $2.12 Million Stock Holdings in Novartis AG $NVS

Checchi Capital Advisers LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 4.1% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 17,475 shares of the company’s stock after selling 740 shares during the quarter. Checchi Capital Advisers LLC’s holdings in Novartis were worth $2,115,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Novartis by 5.2% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,606,724 shares of the company’s stock worth $959,535,000 after acquiring an additional 422,869 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of 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 raised its position in shares of 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 period. New Vernon Capital Holdings II LLC lifted its stake in shares of Novartis by 12,664.1% during the 1st quarter. New Vernon Capital Holdings II LLC now owns 1,383,244 shares of the company’s stock worth $154,204,000 after buying an additional 1,372,407 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Scharf Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Novartis by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Scharf Investments LLC now owns 1,262,444 shares of the company’s stock worth $152,770,000 after buying an additional 3,805 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 13.12% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Novartis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 22nd. Morgan Stanley raised Novartis from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $123.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Novartis in a report on Thursday, August 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “sell” rating and issued a $118.00 price objective (down from $119.00) on shares of Novartis in a report on Friday, September 12th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Novartis in a research note on Saturday, September 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Novartis presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $120.33.

Novartis Trading Up 1.1%

NVS opened at $132.41 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $123.57 and its 200-day moving average is $117.22. Novartis AG has a 1-year low of $96.06 and a 1-year high of $133.37. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The company has a market cap of $279.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.27, a PEG ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 0.64.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 17th. The company reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.38 by $0.04. Novartis had a return on equity of 41.08% and a net margin of 25.64%.The company had revenue of $14.05 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.94 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.97 EPS. Novartis’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict 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.