Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC Boosts Holdings in Novartis AG $NVS

Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 3.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 32,611 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,173 shares during the period. Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC’s holdings in Novartis were worth $3,946,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Novartis by 5.2% during 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 in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Novartis by 60.3% during 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 in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in Novartis by 2.2% during 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 in the last quarter. New Vernon Capital Holdings II LLC lifted its holdings in Novartis by 12,664.1% during 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 purchasing an additional 1,372,407 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Scharf Investments LLC lifted its holdings in Novartis by 0.3% during the second quarter. Scharf Investments LLC now owns 1,262,444 shares of the company’s stock valued at $152,770,000 after purchasing an additional 3,805 shares in the last quarter. 13.12% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on NVS. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Novartis in a research report on Thursday, August 21st. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Novartis from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Novartis in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “sell” rating and issued a $118.00 target price (down from $119.00) on shares of Novartis in a research report on Friday, September 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Novartis from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $123.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, August 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Novartis currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $120.33.

Novartis Price Performance

Novartis stock opened at $129.31 on Tuesday. Novartis AG has a 12-month low of $96.06 and a 12-month high of $133.55. The stock has a market cap of $273.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.82, a PEG ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $125.37 and a 200 day moving average price of $118.07. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

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