King Luther Capital Management Corp Boosts Holdings in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS)

King Luther Capital Management Corp grew its position in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 9.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 10,442 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 919 shares during the quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp’s holdings in Novartis were worth $1,201,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its holdings in Novartis by 28.8% during the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 4,492 shares of the company’s stock worth $435,000 after buying an additional 1,004 shares in the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Novartis by 10.8% in the 1st quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 24,919 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,410,000 after acquiring an additional 2,431 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in Novartis by 3.3% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 115,849 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,207,000 after purchasing an additional 3,696 shares in the last quarter. Earnest Partners LLC raised its holdings in Novartis by 2.6% during the first quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 835,551 shares of the company’s stock worth $80,823,000 after purchasing an additional 21,535 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC boosted its position in Novartis by 4.8% during the first quarter. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC now owns 10,994 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,063,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 13.12% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on NVS shares. Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of Novartis from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $121.00 price objective (up from $119.00) on shares of Novartis in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Novartis from $118.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Erste Group Bank reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Novartis in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Bank of America lowered Novartis from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $135.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $121.50.

Novartis Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:NVS opened at $104.28 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $213.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.11, a P/E/G ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 0.58. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $111.87 and a 200-day simple moving average of $110.12. Novartis AG has a 52 week low of $92.35 and a 52 week high of $120.92. The company has a quick ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The company reported $2.06 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.94 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $12.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.62 billion. Novartis had a return on equity of 34.80% and a net margin of 35.96%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.74 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Novartis AG will post 7.66 EPS for the current 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.