Novartis AG $NVS Shares Acquired by Brooklyn Investment Group

Key Points

• Brooklyn Investment Group significantly increased its holdings in Novartis AG by 1,148.0% in the first quarter, acquiring an additional 6,463 shares to own 7,026 shares valued at approximately $783,000.
• Several institutional investors, including Wealthcare Advisory Partners and Brighton Jones, have also boosted their stakes in Novartis, reflecting growing interest among hedge funds and institutional investors.
• Analysts at Morgan Stanley upgraded Novartis to an "equal weight" rating with a price target of $123.00, while the stock has a current consensus rating of "Hold" with an average target of $123.50.

Brooklyn Investment Group lifted its holdings in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS - Free Report) by 1,148.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,026 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 6,463 shares during the period. Brooklyn Investment Group's holdings in Novartis were worth $783,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of NVS. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Novartis by 60.3% in the 1st 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. Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Novartis in the 4th quarter worth about $109,739,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Novartis by 14,376.4% in the 1st 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 last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Novartis by 5.2% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,606,724 shares of the company's stock worth $959,535,000 after buying an additional 422,869 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Novartis by 23.1% in the 4th 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 last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 13.12% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on NVS. Morgan Stanley upgraded Novartis from an "underweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and set a $123.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, August 8th. Wall Street Zen cut Novartis from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $123.50.

Novartis Price Performance

Shares of Novartis stock traded up $0.1210 on Friday, hitting $126.9410. 1,339,349 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,553,184. The stock has a market capitalization of $268.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $119.37 and a 200 day moving average price of $113.71. Novartis AG has a 1-year low of $96.06 and a 1-year high of $128.03. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

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

Novartis 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.