Corient IA LLC Buys Shares of 5,000 Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS)

Key Points

• Corient IA LLC purchased 5,000 shares of Novartis AG, valued at approximately $557,000, marking a significant investment in the company.
• Goldman Sachs increased its holdings in Novartis by 60.3%, while other institutional investors like GAMMA Investing and Dimensional Fund Advisors also boosted their stakes significantly.
• Novartis reported $2.42 EPS for the last quarter, exceeding analysts' estimates, and demonstrated a 12.3% increase in revenue year-over-year.

Corient IA LLC bought a new stake in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 5,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $557,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Novartis by 60.3% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,660,485 shares of the company's stock valued at $408,071,000 after acquiring an additional 1,377,252 shares in the last quarter. Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Novartis in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $109,739,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Novartis by 14,376.4% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 727,296 shares of the company's stock valued at $81,079,000 after acquiring an additional 722,272 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Novartis by 5.2% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,606,724 shares of the company's stock valued at $959,535,000 after acquiring an additional 422,869 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Novartis by 23.1% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,132,591 shares of the company's stock valued at $207,522,000 after acquiring an additional 399,862 shares in the last quarter. 13.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Novartis Stock Up 1.7%

NYSE NVS opened at $124.20 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $118.67 and its 200 day simple moving average is $113.04. Novartis AG has a 12 month low of $96.06 and a 12 month high of $124.83. The company has a market capitalization of $262.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.08, a PEG ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 0.62.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 17th. The company reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.38 by $0.04. Novartis had a net margin of 25.64% and a return on equity of 41.08%. The business had revenue of $14.05 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.94 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.97 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Novartis AG will post 8.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Novartis from an "underweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and set a $123.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, August 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $123.50.

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.

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