Sonora Investment Management Group LLC Purchases Shares of 2,196 Novartis AG $NVS

Sonora Investment Management Group LLC purchased a new stake in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor purchased 2,196 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $266,000.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Brighton Jones LLC raised its position in shares of Novartis by 76.5% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,153 shares of the company’s stock worth $599,000 after acquiring an additional 2,666 shares in the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP raised its position in shares of Novartis by 24.3% during the 4th quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 4,600 shares of the company’s stock worth $448,000 after acquiring an additional 900 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Novartis by 14,376.4% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 727,296 shares of the company’s stock worth $81,079,000 after acquiring an additional 722,272 shares in the last quarter. Beese Fulmer Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Novartis during the 1st quarter worth about $219,000. Finally, Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Novartis by 49.6% during the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,389 shares of the company’s stock worth $601,000 after acquiring an additional 1,787 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 13.12% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Wall Street Zen lowered Novartis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “sell” rating and set a $118.00 target price (down previously from $119.00) on shares of Novartis in a research report on Friday, September 12th. Morgan Stanley raised 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. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Novartis in a research report on Thursday, August 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $120.33.

Novartis Trading Up 1.2%

NVS opened at $123.75 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $261.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 0.63. Novartis AG has a 52 week low of $96.06 and a 52 week high of $130.46. The business’s 50 day moving average is $122.31 and its two-hundred day moving average is $116.62. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

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

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.