Midwest Trust Co Trims Stake in Novartis AG $NVS

Midwest Trust Co reduced its stake in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 3.0% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 242,228 shares of the company’s stock after selling 7,513 shares during the period. Midwest Trust Co’s holdings in Novartis were worth $37,000,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Auto Owners Insurance Co boosted its position in Novartis by 13,687.0% during the 4th quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 4,628,296 shares of the company’s stock valued at $638,103,000 after acquiring an additional 4,594,726 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its position in shares of Novartis by 14.9% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 8,876,906 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,223,860,000 after acquiring an additional 1,148,033 shares in the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Novartis by 39.6% in the 4th quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 3,158,122 shares of the company’s stock valued at $435,414,000 after purchasing an additional 895,255 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership bought a new stake in shares of Novartis during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $108,638,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. grew its stake in Novartis by 77.7% in the third quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 1,648,174 shares of the company’s stock worth $211,362,000 after purchasing an additional 720,860 shares during the period. 13.12% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NVS has been the subject of a number of research reports. Weiss Ratings downgraded Novartis from a “buy (a-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Novartis to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Novartis from $143.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 26th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $141.20.

Novartis Stock Down 0.4%

NVS stock traded down $0.56 on Friday, reaching $154.06. 1,165,455 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,045,955. Novartis AG has a one year low of $112.34 and a one year high of $170.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.65. The company has a market cap of $293.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 0.45. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $150.86 and a 200-day simple moving average of $151.12.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 27th. The company reported $1.99 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.11 by ($0.12). Novartis had a return on equity of 38.82% and a net margin of 24.87%.The company had revenue of $13.52 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.44 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.28 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Novartis AG will post 8.77 earnings per share for the current year.

About Novartis

Novartis is a Swiss multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Basel that researches, develops, manufactures and commercializes prescription medicines and related health-care products. Formed through the 1996 merger of Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz, Novartis operates globally and focuses on bringing therapeutics from discovery through clinical development to commercial markets worldwide.

The company’s activities center on innovative pharmaceuticals across several therapeutic areas, including oncology, immunology, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, neuroscience and ophthalmology, alongside capabilities in advanced therapies such as biologics, cell and gene therapies.