Invested Advisors Makes New $493,000 Investment in Novartis AG $NVS

Invested Advisors purchased a new stake in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm purchased 3,846 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $493,000.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in Novartis by 5.3% during the second quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 7,121,414 shares of the company’s stock valued at $861,762,000 after acquiring an additional 358,282 shares during the period. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P raised its holdings in shares of Novartis by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 5,581,576 shares of the company’s stock worth $675,427,000 after purchasing an additional 78,483 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Novartis by 8.0% in the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,736,891 shares of the company’s stock valued at $210,181,000 after purchasing an additional 128,302 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Novartis by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,597,830 shares of the company’s stock worth $195,552,000 after purchasing an additional 12,345 shares during the period. Finally, Scharf Investments LLC increased its position in Novartis by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Scharf Investments LLC now owns 1,262,444 shares of the company’s stock worth $152,770,000 after purchasing an additional 3,805 shares in the last quarter. 13.12% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NVS has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Novartis from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, January 3rd. Barclays upgraded shares of Novartis from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Bank of America raised shares of Novartis from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. HC Wainwright lowered Novartis to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “sell” rating and issued a $118.00 target price (down previously from $119.00) on shares of Novartis in a research report on Friday, September 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $119.75.

Novartis Stock Performance

Novartis stock opened at $141.54 on Friday. Novartis AG has a 12-month low of $97.39 and a 12-month high of $143.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.68. The company has a market capitalization of $298.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 0.51. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $132.62 and its 200 day moving average price is $126.82.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The company reported $2.25 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.26 by ($0.01). Novartis had a net margin of 26.49% and a return on equity of 41.21%. The business had revenue of $14.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.70 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.06 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Novartis AG will post 8.45 EPS for the current fiscal 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.