Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Acquires 1,377,252 Shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS)

Key Points

• Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has increased its stake in Novartis AG by 60.3%, owning approximately 3.66 million shares valued at $408 million following the acquisition of over 1.3 million additional shares in Q1.
• Novartis reported $14.05 billion in revenue for the latest quarter, exceeding estimates and representing a 12.3% year-over-year growth, with an EPS of $2.42.
• BNP Paribas recently upgraded Novartis to a "strong-buy" rating, while the overall consensus rating remains at "Hold" with a target price of $123.67.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS - Free Report) by 60.3% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,660,485 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 1,377,252 shares during the quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. owned 0.17% of Novartis worth $408,071,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Novartis by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,183,855 shares of the company's stock worth $796,372,000 after acquiring an additional 90,823 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position 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 worth $207,522,000 after buying an additional 399,862 shares during the period. Scharf Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of Novartis by 4.6% in the first quarter. Scharf Investments LLC now owns 1,258,639 shares of the company's stock worth $140,313,000 after buying an additional 55,316 shares during the period. Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Novartis in the fourth quarter worth $109,739,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position 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 worth $81,079,000 after buying an additional 722,272 shares during the period. 13.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on NVS. BNP Paribas raised Novartis to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Morgan Stanley raised Novartis from an "underweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and set a $123.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Novartis has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $123.50.

Novartis Stock Up 0.8%

NVS traded up $0.88 during trading on Friday, reaching $116.80. 1,585,010 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,143,527. The stock has a market cap of $246.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 0.62. Novartis AG has a fifty-two week low of $96.06 and a fifty-two week high of $124.83. 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 stock's 50-day simple moving average is $118.26 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $112.37.

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