Evolve Private Wealth LLC Buys New Position in Novartis AG $NVS

Evolve Private Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 20,505 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,827,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in NVS. Morgan Stanley lifted its position in Novartis by 14.9% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 8,876,906 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,223,860,000 after buying an additional 1,148,033 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Novartis by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 7,465,850 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,029,317,000 after acquiring an additional 226,484 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in shares of Novartis by 1.7% during the third quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 4,605,878 shares of the company’s stock worth $590,658,000 after acquiring an additional 78,390 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Novartis by 10.3% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 4,479,307 shares of the company’s stock worth $617,562,000 after acquiring an additional 419,988 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GQG Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Novartis by 39.6% in the 4th quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 3,158,122 shares of the company’s stock valued at $435,414,000 after purchasing an additional 895,255 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 13.12% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NVS has been the subject of several recent research reports. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Novartis from a “buy (a-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Argus upgraded Novartis from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 11th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Novartis from $143.00 to $170.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 26th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Novartis to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 19th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $141.20.

Novartis Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:NVS opened at $150.97 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $149.32 and a 200-day moving average price of $148.65. The company has a market cap of $288.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.46. Novartis AG has a 12 month low of $112.34 and a 12 month high of $170.46.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last posted its earnings results on Monday, April 27th. The company reported $1.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.11 by ($0.12). The business had revenue of $13.52 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.44 billion. Novartis had a return on equity of 38.82% and a net margin of 24.87%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.28 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Novartis AG will post 8.82 EPS for the current year.

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.