Novartis AG $NVS Holdings Cut by NBT Bank N A NY

NBT Bank N A NY lowered its holdings in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 1.8% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 28,719 shares of the company’s stock after selling 519 shares during the quarter. NBT Bank N A NY’s holdings in Novartis were worth $3,475,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of NVS. WPG Advisers LLC bought a new position in shares of Novartis during the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. Tsfg LLC grew its stake in Novartis by 366.0% in the 1st quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 233 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 183 shares during the last quarter. Barrett & Company Inc. acquired a new position in Novartis in the 2nd quarter valued at $31,000. MCF Advisors LLC grew its stake in Novartis by 66.0% in the 2nd quarter. MCF Advisors LLC now owns 264 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 105 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alpine Bank Wealth Management acquired a new position in Novartis in the 1st quarter valued at $33,000. Institutional investors own 13.12% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Novartis from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $123.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 8th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Novartis in a research report on Saturday, September 27th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “buy” rating on shares of Novartis in a research report on Thursday, August 21st. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Novartis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 22nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “sell” rating and issued a $118.00 price target (down from $119.00) on shares of Novartis in a research report on Friday, September 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $120.33.

Novartis Price Performance

Shares of Novartis stock opened at $131.57 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.82. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $124.18 and its 200-day simple moving average is $117.48. Novartis AG has a twelve month low of $96.06 and a twelve month high of $133.55. The firm has a market cap of $277.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 0.64.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 17th. The company reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $14.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.94 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.97 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Novartis AG will post 8.45 EPS for the current fiscal 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.