Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC Acquires 2,351 Shares of Novartis AG $NVS

Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC increased its stake in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 40.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,110 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,351 shares during the period. Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Novartis were worth $981,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Sonora Investment Management Group LLC bought a new stake in Novartis in the second quarter valued at approximately $266,000. Cypress Capital Group raised its holdings in Novartis by 84.1% during the 2nd quarter. Cypress Capital Group now owns 5,776 shares of the company’s stock valued at $699,000 after buying an additional 2,638 shares during the last quarter. Focus Partners Wealth raised its holdings in Novartis by 16.8% during the 1st quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 47,548 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,311,000 after buying an additional 6,849 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Novartis during the 2nd quarter valued at $1,909,000. Finally, DAVENPORT & Co LLC raised its holdings in Novartis by 8.9% during the 2nd quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 33,683 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,076,000 after buying an additional 2,758 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 13.12% of the company’s stock.

Novartis Price Performance

NVS stock opened at $129.98 on Thursday. Novartis AG has a 1 year low of $96.06 and a 1 year high of $133.55. The company has a market cap of $274.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.92, a PEG ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 0.64. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $125.95 and a 200 day moving average of $118.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.62.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on NVS shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Novartis in a research note on Thursday, August 21st. Wall Street Zen raised Novartis from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 11th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Novartis in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “sell” rating and set a $118.00 price target (down previously from $119.00) on shares of Novartis in a research report on Friday, September 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded Novartis from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $123.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, August 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $120.33.

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.