Novartis AG $NVS Shares Sold by Welch & Forbes LLC

Welch & Forbes LLC cut its stake in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 5.7% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 57,626 shares of the company’s stock after selling 3,462 shares during the period. Welch & Forbes LLC’s holdings in Novartis were worth $8,802,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in shares of Novartis by 14.9% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 8,876,906 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,223,860,000 after buying an additional 1,148,033 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in Novartis by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 7,465,850 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,029,317,000 after acquiring an additional 226,484 shares during the period. Auto Owners Insurance Co grew its position in Novartis by 13,687.0% during the fourth quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 4,628,296 shares of the company’s stock valued at $638,103,000 after acquiring an additional 4,594,726 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE increased its stake in Novartis by 1.7% during the third quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 4,605,878 shares of the company’s stock worth $590,658,000 after acquiring an additional 78,390 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in Novartis by 10.3% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 4,479,307 shares of the company’s stock worth $617,562,000 after acquiring an additional 419,988 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 13.12% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Novartis from $143.00 to $170.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Novartis to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 19th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Novartis from a “buy (a-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Novartis has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $141.20.

Novartis Stock Down 0.4%

NYSE:NVS traded down $0.56 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $154.06. The stock had a trading volume of 1,165,455 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,045,955. The company has a market cap of $293.97 billion, a PE ratio of 22.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 0.45. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $150.86 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $151.12. Novartis AG has a 1-year low of $112.34 and a 1-year high of $170.46. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last posted its earnings results on Monday, April 27th. The company reported $1.99 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.11 by ($0.12). The firm had revenue of $13.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.44 billion. Novartis had a return on equity of 38.82% and a net margin of 24.87%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.28 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Novartis AG will post 8.77 EPS for the current 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.