Frazier Financial Advisors LLC Lowers Stock Holdings in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS)

Frazier Financial Advisors LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 37.1% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 271 shares of the company’s stock after selling 160 shares during the quarter. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Novartis were worth $31,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of NVS. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Novartis by 23.1% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,407,692 shares of the company’s stock worth $788,626,000 after purchasing an additional 1,389,610 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in shares of Novartis by 191.1% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,904,664 shares of the company’s stock valued at $202,771,000 after acquiring an additional 1,250,318 shares in the last quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC lifted its position in Novartis by 53.7% during the first quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC now owns 1,906,046 shares of the company’s stock worth $184,372,000 after buying an additional 666,104 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board purchased a new position in Novartis during the second quarter worth approximately $64,610,000. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can lifted its position in Novartis by 343.5% during the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 657,903 shares of the company’s stock worth $70,652,000 after buying an additional 509,567 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 13.12% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on NVS shares. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $121.00 price objective (up previously from $119.00) on shares of Novartis in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Bank of America cut Novartis from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $135.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered Novartis from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Novartis from $118.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $121.50.

Novartis Stock Down 0.3 %

NVS opened at $103.06 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $113.14 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $109.92. The company has a quick ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The company has a market cap of $210.65 billion, a PE ratio of 11.97, a P/E/G ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 0.58. Novartis AG has a 52 week low of $92.35 and a 52 week high of $120.92.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The company reported $2.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.94 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $12.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.62 billion. Novartis had a return on equity of 34.80% and a net margin of 35.96%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.74 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Novartis AG will post 7.63 EPS for the current year.

About Novartis

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.