Davis Investment Partners LLC Acquires New Position in Novartis AG $NVS

Davis Investment Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 5,658 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $864,000.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of NVS. Arlington Trust Co LLC bought a new position in shares of Novartis in the fourth quarter worth approximately $25,000. CrossGen Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Novartis during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Bank of Jackson Hole Trust increased its position in shares of Novartis by 425.0% during the fourth quarter. Bank of Jackson Hole Trust now owns 231 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 187 shares in the last quarter. Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC purchased a new position in Novartis in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Finally, Nalls Sherbakoff Group LLC purchased a new position in Novartis in the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. 13.12% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley upped 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. 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. Weiss Ratings cut Novartis from a “buy (a-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised Novartis to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 19th. Seven research 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, Novartis has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $141.20.

Novartis Trading Down 0.1%

NYSE:NVS opened at $153.28 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 $292.49 billion, a PE ratio of 21.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 0.46. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $148.95 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $149.30.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last announced 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 net margin of 24.87% and a return on equity of 38.82%. Novartis’s quarterly revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.28 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Novartis AG will post 8.82 earnings per share 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.