Cherokee Insurance Co Buys Shares of 3,500 Novartis AG $NVS

Cherokee Insurance Co purchased a new position in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 3,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $424,000.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. GFG Capital LLC purchased a new position in Novartis in the second quarter valued at about $26,000. WPG Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Novartis in the 1st quarter worth approximately $25,000. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC purchased a new position in Novartis in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Barrett & Company Inc. acquired a new position in Novartis during the second quarter worth $31,000. Finally, MCF Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Novartis by 66.0% during the second quarter. MCF Advisors LLC now owns 264 shares of the company’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 13.12% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on NVS. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “sell” rating and issued a $118.00 price target (down previously from $119.00) on shares of Novartis in a research report on Friday, September 12th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “hold” rating on shares of Novartis in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Cfra set a $126.00 price target on shares of Novartis and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Novartis in a research note on Thursday, August 21st. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Novartis in a research note on Friday, October 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Novartis currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $122.33.

Novartis Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE NVS opened at $132.18 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $127.47 and a 200-day simple moving average of $121.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The company has a market cap of $279.22 billion, a PE ratio of 18.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 0.60. Novartis AG has a 12 month low of $96.06 and a 12 month high of $133.55.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The company reported $2.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.26 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $13.91 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.70 billion. Novartis had a return on equity of 41.21% and a net margin of 26.49%.The firm’s revenue was up 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.06 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Novartis AG will post 8.45 earnings per share for the current year.

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.