Novartis AG $NVS is First Fiduciary Investment Counsel Inc.’s 7th Largest Position

First Fiduciary Investment Counsel Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 136,823 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 455 shares during the quarter. Novartis accounts for about 3.3% of First Fiduciary Investment Counsel Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest holding. First Fiduciary Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Novartis were worth $16,557,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in NVS. Sonora Investment Management Group LLC bought a new position in Novartis during the second quarter worth $266,000. Focus Partners Wealth lifted its stake in Novartis by 16.8% during the first quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 47,548 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,311,000 after purchasing an additional 6,849 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Financial Group LLC bought a new position in Novartis during the second quarter worth $1,909,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in Novartis by 10.4% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 33,282 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,710,000 after purchasing an additional 3,126 shares during the last quarter. Finally, DAVENPORT & Co LLC lifted its stake in Novartis by 8.9% during the second quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 33,683 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,076,000 after purchasing an additional 2,758 shares during the last quarter. 13.12% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NVS has been the topic of several research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “sell” rating and set a $118.00 price objective (down from $119.00) on shares of Novartis in a research note on Friday, September 12th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “buy” rating on shares of Novartis in a research note on Thursday, August 21st. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Novartis in a research report on Wednesday. Wall Street Zen raised Novartis from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised Novartis from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $123.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Novartis currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $120.33.

Novartis Price Performance

Shares of NVS opened at $130.05 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $274.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.82. Novartis AG has a one year low of $96.06 and a one year high of $133.55. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $125.14 and its 200-day moving average is $117.86.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 17th. The company reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.38 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $14.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.94 billion. Novartis had a return on equity of 41.08% and a net margin of 25.64%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.97 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Novartis AG will post 8.45 EPS 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.