Fiera Capital Corp Acquires 30,433 Shares of Novartis AG $NVS

Fiera Capital Corp raised its holdings in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 32.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 124,367 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 30,433 shares during the quarter. Fiera Capital Corp’s holdings in Novartis were worth $17,146,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of NVS. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in Novartis by 76.5% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,153 shares of the company’s stock valued at $599,000 after acquiring an additional 2,666 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Novartis by 102.8% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 22,573 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,516,000 after acquiring an additional 11,444 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC bought a new stake in Novartis during the first quarter valued at about $1,764,000. Sivia Capital Partners LLC raised its holdings in Novartis by 48.0% during the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 7,959 shares of the company’s stock valued at $963,000 after acquiring an additional 2,581 shares during the period. Finally, Schnieders Capital Management LLC. purchased a new position in shares of Novartis during the second quarter valued at about $202,000. 13.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. DZ Bank lowered Novartis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 9th. TD Cowen restated a “hold” rating on shares of Novartis in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Argus upgraded Novartis from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 11th. Weiss Ratings lowered Novartis from a “buy (a-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Novartis from $143.00 to $170.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 26th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $141.20.

Novartis Trading Down 1.7%

NVS opened at $146.65 on Tuesday. Novartis AG has a 12 month low of $112.34 and a 12 month high of $170.46. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $149.51 and a 200 day moving average of $147.52. The firm has a market cap of $279.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.01, a P/E/G ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.46. 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 announced 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). Novartis had a net margin of 24.87% and a return on equity of 38.82%. The business had revenue of $13.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.44 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.28 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Novartis AG will post 8.84 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.