Franklin Parlapiano Turner & Welch LLC Buys 221 Shares of Novartis AG $NVS

Franklin Parlapiano Turner & Welch LLC grew its stake in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 0.3% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 75,841 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 221 shares during the quarter. Novartis accounts for 2.4% of Franklin Parlapiano Turner & Welch LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 11th biggest position. Franklin Parlapiano Turner & Welch LLC’s holdings in Novartis were worth $9,178,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Novartis by 14.7% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 125,612 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,204,000 after acquiring an additional 16,063 shares during the last quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in Novartis by 84.0% during the 2nd quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 10,663 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,290,000 after purchasing an additional 4,868 shares in the last quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Novartis by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,855 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,314,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares in the last quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Novartis by 31.7% during the 2nd quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 7,100 shares of the company’s stock worth $859,000 after purchasing an additional 1,711 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Natural Investments LLC increased its stake in Novartis by 5.3% during the 2nd quarter. Natural Investments LLC now owns 4,042 shares of the company’s stock worth $489,000 after purchasing an additional 203 shares in the last quarter. 13.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on NVS. Wall Street Zen raised Novartis from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Saturday. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “sell” rating and set a $118.00 target price (down from $119.00) on shares of Novartis in a research note on Friday, September 12th. Morgan Stanley raised Novartis from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $123.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, August 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Novartis in a research note on Thursday, August 21st. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Novartis in a research note on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $120.33.

Novartis Trading Down 0.8%

NYSE:NVS opened at $130.05 on Friday. Novartis AG has a twelve month low of $96.06 and a twelve month high of $133.55. 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 business has a 50 day moving average price of $125.14 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $117.91. The company has a market cap of $274.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 0.64.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last released its quarterly earnings results 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. Novartis had a return on equity of 41.08% and a net margin of 25.64%.The firm had revenue of $14.05 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.94 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.97 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Novartis AG will post 8.45 EPS 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.