Clarius Group LLC Acquires 473 Shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS)

Clarius Group LLC increased its stake in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 4.9% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 10,182 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 473 shares during the period. Clarius Group LLC’s holdings in Novartis were worth $1,027,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Novartis by 514.9% during the 1st quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 8,461,446 shares of the company’s stock valued at $112,669,000 after purchasing an additional 7,085,365 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in Novartis by 19.4% during 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 acquiring an additional 1,235,303 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 279,999 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in Novartis by 6.2% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 6,488,196 shares of the company’s stock worth $588,609,000 after purchasing an additional 377,693 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Novartis by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,257,343 shares of the company’s stock valued at $631,414,000 after purchasing an additional 83,672 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 7.00% of the company’s stock.

Novartis Trading Up 0.4 %

NYSE NVS traded up $0.39 during trading on Thursday, hitting $94.19. The stock had a trading volume of 1,155,226 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,805,867. The stock has a market capitalization of $199.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.22, a P/E/G ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 0.56. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $97.46 and a 200 day simple moving average of $99.86. Novartis AG has a one year low of $79.98 and a one year high of $105.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.94.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last issued its earnings results on Monday, October 23rd. The company reported $1.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.70 by $0.04. Novartis had a net margin of 15.35% and a return on equity of 28.27%. The firm had revenue of $11.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.05 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.58 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Novartis AG will post 6.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on NVS shares. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Novartis from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 25th. StockNews.com started coverage on Novartis in a research note on Thursday, October 5th. They issued a “strong-buy” rating for the company. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Novartis presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $84.50.

About Novartis

Novartis AG researches, develops, manufactures, and markets 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.