Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC Acquires 4,080 Shares of Novartis AG $NVS

Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 26.1% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 19,719 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 4,080 shares during the quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Novartis were worth $2,719,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Novartis by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 7,239,366 shares of the company’s stock worth $928,376,000 after acquiring an additional 117,952 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in shares of Novartis by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 4,605,878 shares of the company’s stock valued at $590,658,000 after purchasing an additional 78,390 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of Novartis by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,371,389 shares of the company’s stock valued at $304,107,000 after purchasing an additional 168,573 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Novartis by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,819,260 shares of the company’s stock valued at $233,302,000 after purchasing an additional 82,369 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. increased its position in shares of Novartis by 77.7% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 1,648,174 shares of the company’s stock valued at $211,362,000 after purchasing an additional 720,860 shares during the last quarter. 13.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently commented on NVS shares. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Novartis to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 19th. HSBC reiterated a “reduce” rating and set a $112.00 price objective on shares of Novartis in a research report on Wednesday, December 10th. DZ Bank lowered Novartis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Barclays upgraded Novartis from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded Novartis from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (a-)” rating in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $141.20.

Novartis Trading Down 0.7%

NYSE NVS opened at $153.00 on Tuesday. Novartis AG has a fifty-two week low of $97.71 and a fifty-two week high of $170.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a current ratio of 1.12. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $156.77 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $141.20. The stock has a market cap of $323.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 0.52.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 3rd. The company reported $2.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $13.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.85 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.98 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Novartis AG will post 8.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Novartis Announces Dividend

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