Novartis AG $NVS Shares Sold by Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd.

Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lessened its holdings in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 14.2% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 342,536 shares of the company’s stock after selling 56,622 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Novartis were worth $47,225,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Novartis by 1.7% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 7,239,366 shares of the company’s stock worth $928,376,000 after purchasing an additional 117,952 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in shares of Novartis by 1.7% during the third quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 4,605,878 shares of the company’s stock worth $590,658,000 after purchasing an additional 78,390 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of Novartis by 7.7% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,371,389 shares of the company’s stock worth $304,107,000 after purchasing an additional 168,573 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Novartis by 4.7% during the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,819,260 shares of the company’s stock worth $233,302,000 after purchasing an additional 82,369 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of Novartis by 77.7% during the third quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 1,648,174 shares of the company’s stock worth $211,362,000 after purchasing an additional 720,860 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 13.12% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently issued reports on NVS shares. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Novartis to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 19th. DZ Bank cut shares of Novartis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Argus raised shares of Novartis from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 11th. Barclays raised shares of Novartis from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of Novartis from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (a-)” rating in a research report on Friday, February 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Novartis currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $141.20.

Novartis Stock Up 1.5%

Shares of NYSE:NVS opened at $152.00 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $157.05 and its 200 day moving average price is $142.81. The stock has a market cap of $290.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 0.52. Novartis AG has a fifty-two week low of $104.93 and a fifty-two week high of $170.46. The company has a quick ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 3rd. The company reported $2.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.99 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $13.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.85 billion. Novartis had a net margin of 25.65% and a return on equity of 40.53%. The firm’s revenue was up 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.98 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Novartis AG will post 8.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Novartis Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced an annual dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 11th were issued a $4.773 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 11th. This represents a yield of 306.0%. Novartis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.02%.

About Novartis

Novartis is a Swiss multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Basel that researches, develops, manufactures and commercializes prescription medicines and related health-care products. Formed through the 1996 merger of Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz, Novartis operates globally and focuses on bringing therapeutics from discovery through clinical development to commercial markets worldwide.

The company’s activities center on innovative pharmaceuticals across several therapeutic areas, including oncology, immunology, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, neuroscience and ophthalmology, alongside capabilities in advanced therapies such as biologics, cell and gene therapies.