Clarius Group LLC Purchases 1,700 Shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS)

Clarius Group LLC raised its position in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 21.4% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 9,631 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 1,700 shares during the period. Clarius Group LLC’s holdings in Novartis were worth $1,074,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of NVS. Human Investing LLC acquired a new position in shares of Novartis in the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Raiffeisen Bank International AG bought a new stake in shares of Novartis in the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Nexus Investment Management ULC acquired a new stake in shares of Novartis during the first quarter worth about $25,000. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA bought a new position in shares of Novartis during the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Finally, Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Novartis in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Institutional investors own 13.12% of the company’s stock.

Novartis Stock Performance

Shares of Novartis stock opened at $116.37 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.61. The firm has a market cap of $245.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.59. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $112.42 and its 200-day moving average is $107.27. Novartis AG has a one year low of $96.06 and a one year high of $120.92.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The company reported $2.28 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.16. Novartis had a return on equity of 39.44% and a net margin of 24.70%. The firm had revenue of $13.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.92 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.80 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Novartis AG will post 8.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Novartis to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $123.38.

About Novartis

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.