Cerity Partners LLC Lowers Position in Novartis AG $NVS

Cerity Partners LLC cut its stake in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 11.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 294,770 shares of the company’s stock after selling 37,912 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in Novartis were worth $40,641,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Todd Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 23,978 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in Novartis by 18.1% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 537,543 shares of the company’s stock worth $68,935,000 after acquiring an additional 82,226 shares during the last quarter. BXM Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Novartis by 726.9% in the 4th quarter. BXM Wealth LLC now owns 42,817 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,903,000 after acquiring an additional 37,639 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Spire Wealth Management raised its holdings in Novartis by 2,561.0% in the 4th quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 38,983 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,375,000 after acquiring an additional 37,518 shares during the last quarter. 13.12% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Novartis Trading Down 0.5%

NYSE:NVS opened at $148.30 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. Novartis AG has a 12 month low of $112.34 and a 12 month high of $170.46. The company has a market cap of $282.98 billion, a PE ratio of 21.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.46. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $149.49 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $147.84.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last posted its earnings results on Monday, April 27th. The company reported $1.99 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.11 by ($0.12). Novartis had a return on equity of 38.82% and a net margin of 24.87%.The company had revenue of $13.52 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.44 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.28 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Novartis AG will post 8.83 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on NVS. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Novartis from a “buy (a-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Novartis to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 19th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Novartis from $143.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 26th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “buy” rating on shares of Novartis in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, TD Cowen restated a “hold” rating on shares of Novartis in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $141.20.

Novartis Company 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.