Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) Shares Sold by Lantz Financial LLC

Lantz Financial LLC reduced its stake in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 4.9% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,422 shares of the company’s stock after selling 384 shares during the period. Lantz Financial LLC’s holdings in Novartis were worth $749,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Novartis by 514.9% in the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 8,461,446 shares of the company’s stock worth $112,669,000 after purchasing an additional 7,085,365 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in shares of Novartis by 19.4% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 7,604,681 shares of the company’s stock valued at $699,631,000 after purchasing an additional 1,235,303 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Novartis by 4.2% in the first quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,982,292 shares of the company’s stock valued at $642,371,000 after purchasing an additional 279,999 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in shares of Novartis by 6.2% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 6,488,196 shares of the company’s stock valued at $588,609,000 after purchasing an additional 377,693 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Novartis by 3.0% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,173,671 shares of the company’s stock valued at $567,974,000 after purchasing an additional 180,186 shares in the last quarter. 7.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NVS has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. StockNews.com initiated coverage on Novartis in a report on Thursday, August 17th. They issued a “strong-buy” rating for the company. HSBC began coverage on Novartis in a report on Friday, July 14th. They set a “buy” rating for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $80.00.

Novartis Stock Up 0.5 %

Novartis stock traded up $0.56 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $102.63. 57,866 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,865,720. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The stock has a market cap of $217.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.44, a P/E/G ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 0.54. Novartis AG has a 1-year low of $74.09 and a 1-year high of $105.61. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $101.71 and a two-hundred day moving average of $98.14.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 19th. The company reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $13.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.32 million. Novartis had a net margin of 14.76% and a return on equity of 25.12%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.56 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Novartis AG will post 6.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Novartis Company Profile

Novartis AG researches, develops, manufactures, and markets healthcare products in Switzerland and internationally. The company operates through two segments: Innovative Medicines and Sandoz. The Innovative Medicines segment offers prescription medicines for patients and physicians. It also provides cardiovascular, ophthalmology, neuroscience, immunology, hematology, and solid tumor products.