Mondrian Investment Partners LTD lowered its position in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS - Free Report) by 71.1% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 189,861 shares of the company's stock after selling 468,142 shares during the period. Mondrian Investment Partners LTD's holdings in Novartis were worth $21,166,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Novartis by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,183,855 shares of the company's stock valued at $796,372,000 after acquiring an additional 90,823 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased 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 purchasing an additional 1,377,252 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased 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 purchasing an additional 399,862 shares in the last quarter. Scharf Investments LLC increased its holdings 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 valued at $140,313,000 after purchasing an additional 55,316 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Novartis in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $109,739,000. Institutional investors own 13.12% of the company's stock.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
Separately, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Novartis from an "underweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and set a $123.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, August 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $123.50.
Check Out Our Latest Research Report on Novartis
Novartis Trading Up 0.9%
NVS stock traded up $1.04 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $122.24. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,211,989 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,049,547. Novartis AG has a 52 week low of $96.06 and a 52 week high of $124.83. The stock has a market cap of $258.22 billion, a PE ratio of 17.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $118.54 and its 200-day simple moving average is $112.82.
Novartis (NYSE:NVS - Get Free Report) last announced 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. The firm had revenue of $14.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $13.94 billion. Novartis had a net margin of 25.64% and a return on equity of 41.08%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.97 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Novartis AG will post 8.45 EPS for the current year.
Novartis Company Profile
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Free Report)
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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