Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) Shares Sold by Spire Wealth Management

Spire Wealth Management decreased its position in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 14.0% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 3,500 shares of the company’s stock after selling 569 shares during the period. Spire Wealth Management’s holdings in Novartis were worth $353,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. raised its position in Novartis by 18.3% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 1,556,539 shares of the company’s stock valued at $136,587,000 after purchasing an additional 240,710 shares in the last quarter. Dakota Wealth Management raised its position in Novartis by 3.9% in the 1st quarter. Dakota Wealth Management now owns 4,869 shares of the company’s stock valued at $427,000 after purchasing an additional 185 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in Novartis by 42.4% in the 1st quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 10,996 shares of the company’s stock valued at $965,000 after purchasing an additional 3,272 shares in the last quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. raised its position in Novartis by 4.5% in the 1st quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 95,477 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,379,000 after purchasing an additional 4,122 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Zions Bancorporation N.A. raised its position in Novartis by 22.8% in the 1st quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 3,528 shares of the company’s stock valued at $309,000 after purchasing an additional 655 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 7.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on NVS. StockNews.com began coverage on Novartis in a research report on Thursday, October 5th. They issued a “strong-buy” rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised Novartis from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 25th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $84.50.

Novartis Price Performance

Shares of NYSE NVS opened at $94.89 on Friday. 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 AG has a fifty-two week low of $79.98 and a fifty-two week high of $105.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $201.13 billion, a PE ratio of 25.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 0.56. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $97.29 and its 200-day simple moving average is $99.77.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last issued its earnings results on Monday, October 23rd. The company reported $1.74 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.70 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $11.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.05 billion. Novartis had a return on equity of 28.27% and a net margin of 15.35%. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.58 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Novartis AG will post 6.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.