Pacifica Partners Inc. Has $223,000 Position in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS)

Pacifica Partners Inc. cut its stake in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 18.7% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,984 shares of the company’s stock after selling 457 shares during the quarter. Pacifica Partners Inc.’s holdings in Novartis were worth $223,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in Novartis by 35.6% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 423,142 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,176,000 after buying an additional 111,066 shares during the period. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC acquired a new position in Novartis during the 4th quarter worth about $239,000. Csenge Advisory Group lifted its holdings in Novartis by 63.5% during the 4th quarter. Csenge Advisory Group now owns 16,395 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,595,000 after buying an additional 6,369 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in Novartis by 129.8% during the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 98,412 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,560,000 after buying an additional 55,581 shares during the period. Finally, Altrius Capital Management Inc lifted its holdings in Novartis by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. Altrius Capital Management Inc now owns 77,783 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,569,000 after buying an additional 3,345 shares during the period. 13.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NVS has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wall Street Zen raised Novartis from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, February 8th. Barclays reissued an “underweight” rating on shares of Novartis in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Novartis in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley started coverage on Novartis in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. They issued an “underweight” rating for the company. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised Novartis from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Novartis has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $123.38.

Novartis Stock Performance

Shares of Novartis stock opened at $115.67 on Friday. Novartis AG has a one year low of $96.06 and a one year high of $120.92. The firm has a market capitalization of $244.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.67, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.60. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $110.02 and a 200 day simple moving average of $106.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 0.84.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The company reported $2.28 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.16. Novartis had a return on equity of 37.24% and a net margin of 23.56%. The business had revenue of $13.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.92 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.80 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Novartis AG will post 8.45 earnings per share 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.