Novartis AG $NVS Holdings Boosted by Compound Planning Inc.

Compound Planning Inc. raised its stake in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 13.1% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 30,578 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 3,544 shares during the quarter. Compound Planning Inc.’s holdings in Novartis were worth $4,671,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in NVS. Auto Owners Insurance Co raised its position in shares of Novartis by 13,687.0% during the 4th quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 4,628,296 shares of the company’s stock worth $638,103,000 after purchasing an additional 4,594,726 shares during the period. WCM Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Novartis during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $220,004,000. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in Novartis by 14.9% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 8,876,906 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,223,860,000 after buying an additional 1,148,033 shares during the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC increased its position in Novartis by 39.6% in the fourth quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 3,158,122 shares of the company’s stock worth $435,414,000 after buying an additional 895,255 shares during the period. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership acquired a new stake in Novartis in the fourth quarter worth $108,638,000. 13.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NVS has been the subject of several analyst reports. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Novartis from a “buy (a-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Citigroup reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Novartis in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Novartis from $143.00 to $170.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 26th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $141.20.

Novartis Stock Up 2.1%

Shares of Novartis stock opened at $156.32 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.65. Novartis AG has a 1-year low of $112.34 and a 1-year high of $170.46. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $151.81 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $152.11. The company has a market capitalization of $298.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.58, a PEG ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 0.45.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, June 30th. The company reported $2.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The company had revenue of $14.95 billion during the quarter. Novartis had a return on equity of 38.56% and a net margin of 23.29%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Novartis AG will post 8.75 EPS 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.