Novartis AG $NVS Shares Bought by O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC

O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 5.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 300,078 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 14,273 shares during the period. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Novartis were worth $41,372,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position in Novartis by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 7,465,850 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,029,317,000 after purchasing an additional 226,484 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in shares of Novartis by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 4,605,878 shares of the company’s stock valued at $590,658,000 after purchasing an additional 78,390 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of Novartis by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,371,389 shares of the company’s stock valued at $304,107,000 after purchasing an additional 168,573 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Novartis by 77.7% in the 3rd quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 1,648,174 shares of the company’s stock valued at $211,362,000 after purchasing an additional 720,860 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS Group AG raised its holdings in shares of Novartis by 15.1% in the 3rd quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,602,133 shares of the company’s stock valued at $205,458,000 after purchasing an additional 210,207 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 13.12% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on NVS. DZ Bank cut Novartis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Argus raised Novartis from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 11th. 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 Novartis to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 19th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Novartis in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Seven equities 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, Novartis presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $141.20.

Novartis Price Performance

Shares of NYSE NVS opened at $149.04 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.85. Novartis AG has a fifty-two week low of $112.34 and a fifty-two week high of $170.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $284.40 billion, a PE ratio of 21.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.46. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $149.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $147.39.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last issued its earnings results on Monday, April 27th. The company reported $1.99 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $13.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.44 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.28 EPS. Novartis’s revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Novartis AG will post 8.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Novartis Company Profile

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.