Triasima Portfolio Management inc. Acquires 32,620 Shares of Novartis AG $NVS

Triasima Portfolio Management inc. lifted its holdings in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 185.8% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 50,175 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 32,620 shares during the period. Triasima Portfolio Management inc.’s holdings in Novartis were worth $6,918,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in NVS. Arlington Trust Co LLC bought a new stake in shares of Novartis in the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Novartis in the third quarter worth $31,000. Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Novartis in the third quarter worth $33,000. South Plains Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of Novartis by 39.0% in the third quarter. South Plains Financial Inc. now owns 271 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Country Trust Bank lifted its position in shares of Novartis by 47.4% in the third quarter. Country Trust Bank now owns 342 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 110 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 13.12% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on NVS shares. Barclays raised shares of Novartis from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 6th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Novartis to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 19th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Novartis from $143.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 26th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Novartis from a “buy (a-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, DZ Bank downgraded shares of Novartis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 9th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $141.20.

Novartis Price Performance

Shares of NVS opened at $146.67 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $279.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.01, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.46. Novartis AG has a 1-year low of $104.93 and a 1-year high of $170.46. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $154.29 and its 200 day simple moving average is $143.98. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The company reported $1.99 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.11 by ($0.12). The firm had revenue of $13.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.44 billion. Novartis had a return on equity of 38.82% and a net margin of 24.87%.Novartis’s quarterly revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.28 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Novartis AG will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Novartis Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed an annual dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 11th were issued a $4.773 dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 306.0%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 11th. Novartis’s payout ratio is currently 44.13%.

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.