Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) Receives $141.20 Average Target Price from Analysts

Shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the sixteen ratings firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $141.20.

NVS has been the subject of several research reports. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Novartis from $143.00 to $170.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Novartis to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 19th. DZ Bank downgraded shares of Novartis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “buy” rating on shares of Novartis in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, Argus upgraded shares of Novartis from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 price target for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 11th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Novartis

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Todd Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Novartis by 5.8% in the third quarter. Todd Asset Management LLC now owns 439,879 shares of the company’s stock valued at $56,411,000 after acquiring an additional 23,978 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Novartis by 1.7% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 7,239,366 shares of the company’s stock worth $928,376,000 after purchasing an additional 117,952 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Novartis by 18.1% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 537,543 shares of the company’s stock valued at $68,935,000 after purchasing an additional 82,226 shares during the last quarter. BXM Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Novartis by 726.9% in the 4th quarter. BXM Wealth LLC now owns 42,817 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,903,000 after purchasing an additional 37,639 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Spire Wealth Management lifted its holdings in shares of Novartis by 2,561.0% in the 4th quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 38,983 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,375,000 after purchasing an additional 37,518 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 13.12% of the company’s stock.

Novartis Stock Down 1.7%

Novartis stock opened at $146.65 on Thursday. Novartis has a fifty-two week low of $112.34 and a fifty-two week high of $170.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.85. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $149.51 and a 200 day moving average price of $147.52. The company has a market capitalization of $279.83 billion, a PE ratio of 21.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.46.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last posted 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 net margin of 24.87% and a return on equity of 38.82%. The company had revenue of $13.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.44 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.28 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Novartis will post 8.84 earnings per share 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.