CoreFirst Bank & Trust Acquires 700 Shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS)

CoreFirst Bank & Trust lifted its holdings in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 30.3% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,010 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 700 shares during the period. CoreFirst Bank & Trust’s holdings in Novartis were worth $336,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NVS. Nexus Investment Management ULC bought a new position in shares of Novartis during the first quarter valued at about $25,000. Tsfg LLC grew its position in Novartis by 366.0% during the 1st quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 233 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 183 shares during the last quarter. Raiffeisen Bank International AG bought a new position in Novartis during the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Alpine Bank Wealth Management purchased a new position in Novartis in the 1st quarter worth approximately $33,000. Finally, Park Square Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Novartis in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 13.12% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, BNP Paribas raised shares of Novartis to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Novartis currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $123.67.

Novartis Stock Performance

Shares of NVS stock opened at $121.90 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $257.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.05, a PEG ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 0.59. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $115.08 and a 200 day moving average of $108.98. Novartis AG has a 52 week low of $96.06 and a 52 week high of $124.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The company reported $2.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $13.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.92 billion. Novartis had a net margin of 24.70% and a return on equity of 39.44%. Novartis’s revenue was up 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.80 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Novartis AG will post 8.45 earnings per share for the current year.

About Novartis

Novartis AG engages in the research, development, manufacture, and marketing of 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.