Novartis AG $NVS Stock Position Raised by Martin Investment Management LLC

Martin Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 2.5% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 232,753 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,670 shares during the quarter. Novartis accounts for approximately 6.5% of Martin Investment Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest position. Martin Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Novartis were worth $25,947,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Novartis by 5.2% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,606,724 shares of the company’s stock valued at $959,535,000 after purchasing an additional 422,869 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in Novartis by 60.3% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,660,485 shares of the company’s stock worth $408,071,000 after purchasing an additional 1,377,252 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in Novartis by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,180,281 shares of the company’s stock valued at $243,058,000 after purchasing an additional 47,690 shares in the last quarter. Scharf Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Novartis by 4.6% in the 1st quarter. Scharf Investments LLC now owns 1,258,639 shares of the company’s stock valued at $140,313,000 after buying an additional 55,316 shares during the period. Finally, Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Novartis during the fourth quarter worth about $109,739,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 13.12% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Novartis from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $123.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, August 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $123.50.

Novartis Price Performance

NVS stock opened at $127.1780 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $119.10 and a 200 day moving average price of $113.41. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The stock has a market cap of $268.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.51, a PEG ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 0.62. Novartis AG has a fifty-two week low of $96.06 and a fifty-two week high of $127.68.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 17th. The company reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.38 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $14.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.94 billion. Novartis had a net margin of 25.64% and a return on equity of 41.08%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.97 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate 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.