Cullen Investment Group LTD. Acquires 28,338 Shares of Novartis AG $NVS

Cullen Investment Group LTD. lifted its holdings in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 621.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 32,897 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 28,338 shares during the quarter. Cullen Investment Group LTD.’s holdings in Novartis were worth $4,656,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of NVS. Raymond James Financial Inc. raised its stake in Novartis by 77.7% in the 3rd quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 1,648,174 shares of the company’s stock valued at $211,362,000 after acquiring an additional 720,860 shares during the period. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Novartis in the third quarter valued at approximately $64,563,000. Bank of Montreal Can raised its position in shares of Novartis by 85.0% in the third quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 1,045,191 shares of the company’s stock valued at $134,035,000 after purchasing an additional 480,201 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Novartis by 5.3% during the 2nd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 7,121,414 shares of the company’s stock valued at $861,762,000 after buying an additional 358,282 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Novartis by 52.9% during the 2nd quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 876,956 shares of the company’s stock valued at $106,120,000 after buying an additional 303,553 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 13.12% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. HSBC reiterated a “reduce” rating and issued a $112.00 price target on shares of Novartis in a research report on Wednesday, December 10th. DZ Bank downgraded Novartis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Argus raised Novartis from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 11th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Novartis in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, TD Cowen reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Novartis in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $131.80.

Novartis Stock Performance

Novartis stock opened at $150.69 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $155.68 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $139.58. The company has a quick ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. Novartis AG has a twelve month low of $97.71 and a twelve month high of $170.46. The company has a market capitalization of $318.31 billion, a PE ratio of 21.05, a P/E/G ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.49.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The company reported $2.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.99 by $0.04. Novartis had a return on equity of 40.53% and a net margin of 25.65%.The firm had revenue of $13.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.85 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.98 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Novartis AG will post 8.45 EPS for the current year.

Novartis Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced an annual dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 11th were given a $4.773 dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 306.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 11th. Novartis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 43.02%.

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.