Novartis (NYSE:NVS) Raised to “Equal Weight” at Barclays

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) was upgraded by equities researchers at Barclays from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research report issued on Tuesday.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on NVS. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Novartis in a report on Monday, December 29th. Cfra Research raised shares of Novartis to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Cowen reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Novartis in a research note on Monday, November 10th. HC Wainwright downgraded shares of Novartis to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “sell” rating and issued a $118.00 target price (down from $119.00) on shares of Novartis in a research report on Friday, September 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Novartis presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $119.75.

Novartis Trading Up 2.8%

NYSE:NVS traded up $3.80 on Tuesday, reaching $141.71. The stock had a trading volume of 1,970,357 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,358,123. The company has a market cap of $299.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.36, a P/E/G ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.68. Novartis has a 12-month low of $97.39 and a 12-month high of $141.45. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $131.47 and its two-hundred day moving average is $126.43.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The company reported $2.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.26 by ($0.01). Novartis had a net margin of 26.49% and a return on equity of 41.21%. The firm had revenue of $14.36 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.70 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.06 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Novartis will post 8.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Novartis

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Keybank National Association OH raised its stake in Novartis by 13.2% in the second quarter. Keybank National Association OH now owns 49,377 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,975,000 after buying an additional 5,742 shares in the last quarter. Sonora Investment Management Group LLC purchased a new position in Novartis in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $266,000. Cypress Capital Group boosted its holdings in Novartis by 84.1% during the 2nd quarter. Cypress Capital Group now owns 5,776 shares of the company’s stock valued at $699,000 after acquiring an additional 2,638 shares during the period. HM Payson & Co. boosted its position in Novartis by 306.6% during the third quarter. HM Payson & Co. now owns 13,262 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,701,000 after purchasing an additional 10,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Focus Partners Wealth raised its holdings in shares of Novartis by 16.8% during the first quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 47,548 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,311,000 after purchasing an additional 6,849 shares during the last quarter. 13.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Novartis

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.