Catalina Capital Group LLC Has $261,000 Stake in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS)

Catalina Capital Group LLC raised its holdings in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 35.1% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 2,682 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 697 shares during the period. Catalina Capital Group LLC’s holdings in Novartis were worth $261,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Novartis by 257.7% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 9,702 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,033,000 after purchasing an additional 6,990 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its holdings in Novartis by 18.8% during the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 21,296 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,449,000 after buying an additional 3,372 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of Novartis by 33.3% during the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 5,437 shares of the company’s stock worth $625,000 after buying an additional 1,359 shares during the period. Diversified Trust Co increased its stake in shares of Novartis by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 5,099 shares of the company’s stock valued at $586,000 after acquiring an additional 229 shares during the last quarter. Finally, IAM Advisory LLC raised its position in shares of Novartis by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. IAM Advisory LLC now owns 14,913 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,715,000 after acquiring an additional 363 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 13.12% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on NVS. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Novartis from $118.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com downgraded Novartis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Erste Group Bank reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Novartis in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, HSBC lowered Novartis from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Novartis currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $123.38.

Novartis Price Performance

NVS stock opened at $105.54 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $215.72 billion, a PE ratio of 17.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 0.58. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $100.10 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $108.43. Novartis AG has a 1 year low of $92.35 and a 1 year high of $120.92. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last announced its earnings results on Friday, January 31st. The company reported $1.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.80 by $0.18. Novartis had a return on equity of 37.79% and a net margin of 23.56%. Equities analysts forecast that Novartis AG will post 8.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Novartis Company Profile

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.