Larson Financial Group LLC Acquires 1,176 Shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS)

Larson Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 2,218.9% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,229 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,176 shares during the quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Novartis were worth $141,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in NVS. Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Novartis by 28.8% in the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 4,492 shares of the company’s stock valued at $435,000 after acquiring an additional 1,004 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Novartis by 3.3% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 115,849 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,207,000 after acquiring an additional 3,696 shares in the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Novartis in the first quarter valued at about $279,000. Atria Investments Inc raised its holdings in shares of Novartis by 8.6% in the first quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 48,481 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,688,000 after acquiring an additional 3,834 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers raised its holdings in shares of Novartis by 389.6% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 106,535 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,305,000 after acquiring an additional 84,777 shares in the last quarter. 13.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on NVS shares. Erste Group Bank restated a “hold” rating on shares of Novartis in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Novartis from $118.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Bank of America downgraded shares of Novartis from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $135.00 to $130.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Novartis from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $121.00 target price (up from $119.00) on shares of Novartis in a report on Thursday, September 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $121.50.

Novartis Price Performance

Shares of NVS stock opened at $104.87 on Friday. Novartis AG has a fifty-two week low of $92.35 and a fifty-two week high of $120.92. The firm has a market capitalization of $214.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.18, a PEG ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a current ratio of 1.11. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $110.92 and its 200-day simple moving average is $110.16.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The company reported $2.06 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.94 by $0.12. Novartis had a return on equity of 34.80% and a net margin of 35.96%. The business had revenue of $12.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.62 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.74 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Novartis AG will post 7.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Novartis Company Profile

Novartis AG engages in the research, development, manufacture, and marketing of healthcare products in Switzerland and internationally. The company offers prescription medicines for patients and physicians. It focuses on therapeutic areas, such as cardiovascular, renal and metabolic, immunology, neuroscience, and oncology, as well as ophthalmology and hematology.