Dorsey Wright & Associates Buys Shares of 16,264 Novartis AG $NVS

Dorsey Wright & Associates acquired a new position in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 16,264 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,484,000.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Auto Owners Insurance Co grew its stake in shares of Novartis by 13,687.0% in the fourth quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 4,628,296 shares of the company’s stock worth $638,103,000 after purchasing an additional 4,594,726 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its stake in shares of Novartis by 14.9% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 8,876,906 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,223,860,000 after purchasing an additional 1,148,033 shares in the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Novartis by 39.6% during the fourth quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 3,158,122 shares of the company’s stock valued at $435,414,000 after purchasing an additional 895,255 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership acquired a new stake in Novartis in the fourth quarter worth about $108,638,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. grew its position in Novartis by 77.7% in the 3rd quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 1,648,174 shares of the company’s stock valued at $211,362,000 after buying an additional 720,860 shares in the last quarter. 13.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Novartis Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of NVS opened at $153.78 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $151.41 and its 200 day moving average price is $151.61. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $293.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.03, a P/E/G ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 0.45. Novartis AG has a 1-year low of $112.34 and a 1-year high of $170.46.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 27th. The company reported $1.99 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.11 by ($0.12). The firm had revenue of $13.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.44 billion. Novartis had a return on equity of 38.82% and a net margin of 24.87%.The business’s revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.28 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Novartis AG will post 8.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Novartis from $143.00 to $170.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 26th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Novartis from a “buy (a-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Novartis currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $141.20.

Novartis Company Profile

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.