Capital Wealth Planning LLC Buys 44,640 Shares of Novartis AG $NVS

Capital Wealth Planning LLC boosted its stake in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 37.5% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 163,545 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 44,640 shares during the period. Capital Wealth Planning LLC’s holdings in Novartis were worth $22,658,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NVS. Todd Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Novartis by 5.8% during the third quarter. Todd Asset Management LLC now owns 439,879 shares of the company’s stock valued at $56,411,000 after buying an additional 23,978 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Novartis by 1.7% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 7,239,366 shares of the company’s stock valued at $928,376,000 after buying an additional 117,952 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Novartis by 18.1% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 537,543 shares of the company’s stock valued at $68,935,000 after buying an additional 82,226 shares during the last quarter. BXM Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of Novartis by 726.9% during the fourth quarter. BXM Wealth LLC now owns 42,817 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,903,000 after buying an additional 37,639 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Spire Wealth Management grew its stake in shares of Novartis by 2,561.0% during the fourth quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 38,983 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,375,000 after buying an additional 37,518 shares during the last quarter. 13.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Novartis Stock Down 0.5%

Novartis stock opened at $148.30 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $149.49 and a two-hundred day moving average of $147.84. The company has a quick ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96. The firm has a market cap of $282.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.46. Novartis AG has a twelve month low of $112.34 and a twelve 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 for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.11 by ($0.12). The company had revenue of $13.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.44 billion. Novartis had a return on equity of 38.82% and a net margin of 24.87%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.28 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Novartis AG will post 8.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on NVS shares. Weiss Ratings cut Novartis from a “buy (a-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Novartis from $143.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Novartis to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 19th. Argus raised Novartis from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 11th. Finally, TD Cowen reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Novartis in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Novartis has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $141.20.

Novartis Profile

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.