Concord Wealth Partners Purchases 270 Shares of Novartis AG $NVS

Concord Wealth Partners boosted its position in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 20.4% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,596 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 270 shares during the quarter. Concord Wealth Partners’ holdings in Novartis were worth $193,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Novartis by 5.2% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,606,724 shares of the company’s stock worth $959,535,000 after acquiring an additional 422,869 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in Novartis by 60.3% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,660,485 shares of the company’s stock valued at $408,071,000 after buying an additional 1,377,252 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in Novartis by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,180,281 shares of the company’s stock valued at $243,058,000 after buying an additional 47,690 shares in the last quarter. New Vernon Capital Holdings II LLC grew its stake in shares of Novartis by 12,664.1% in the first quarter. New Vernon Capital Holdings II LLC now owns 1,383,244 shares of the company’s stock worth $154,204,000 after acquiring an additional 1,372,407 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Scharf Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of Novartis by 0.3% in the second quarter. Scharf Investments LLC now owns 1,262,444 shares of the company’s stock worth $152,770,000 after acquiring an additional 3,805 shares during the last quarter. 13.12% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Novartis Trading Down 0.6%

Shares of NVS stock opened at $129.31 on Tuesday. Novartis AG has a 12-month low of $96.06 and a 12-month high of $133.55. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $125.37 and its 200 day moving average is $118.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $273.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.82, a P/E/G ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 0.64.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 17th. The company reported $2.42 earnings per share (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 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 quarterly revenue was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.97 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Novartis AG will post 8.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Novartis Company 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.