Freestone Capital Holdings LLC Decreases Stake in Novartis AG $NVS

Freestone Capital Holdings LLC cut its holdings in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 7.1% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 3,484 shares of the company’s stock after selling 266 shares during the quarter. Freestone Capital Holdings LLC’s holdings in Novartis were worth $388,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of NVS. Raiffeisen Bank International AG purchased a new stake in shares of Novartis in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Nexus Investment Management ULC purchased a new stake in Novartis during the first quarter worth $25,000. Tsfg LLC boosted its position in Novartis by 366.0% during the first quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 233 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 183 shares in the last quarter. Park Square Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in Novartis during the fourth quarter worth $30,000. Finally, Alpine Bank Wealth Management purchased a new stake in Novartis during the first quarter worth $33,000. 13.12% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Morgan Stanley upgraded Novartis from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $123.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Novartis presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $123.50.

Novartis Trading Down 0.2%

Novartis stock opened at $123.96 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $118.79 and a 200 day moving average price of $113.23. Novartis AG has a 52 week low of $96.06 and a 52 week high of $124.83. The stock has a market cap of $261.86 billion, a PE ratio of 18.04, a P/E/G ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 17th. The company reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.38 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $14.05 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.94 billion. Novartis had a net margin of 25.64% and a return on equity of 41.08%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.97 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Novartis AG will post 8.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Novartis 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.