PNC Financial Services Group Inc. Acquires 7,791 Shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS)

PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS - Free Report) by 3.7% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 220,179 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 7,791 shares during the quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc.'s holdings in Novartis were worth $24,546,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Kazazian Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Novartis during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $203,000. IFG Advisory LLC raised its holdings in Novartis by 427.6% in the 1st quarter. IFG Advisory LLC now owns 12,869 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,435,000 after acquiring an additional 10,430 shares in the last quarter. TIAA Trust National Association raised its holdings in Novartis by 7.6% in the 1st quarter. TIAA Trust National Association now owns 8,474 shares of the company's stock valued at $945,000 after acquiring an additional 599 shares in the last quarter. Mcintyre Freedman & Flynn Investment Advisers Inc. raised its holdings in Novartis by 1.8% in the 1st quarter. Mcintyre Freedman & Flynn Investment Advisers Inc. now owns 28,455 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,172,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Commerce Bank raised its holdings in Novartis by 12.2% in the 1st quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 23,813 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,655,000 after acquiring an additional 2,581 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 13.12% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, BNP Paribas raised Novartis to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Novartis presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $123.67.

Novartis Trading Up 2.2%

NVS stock opened at $117.79 on Tuesday. Novartis AG has a 1-year low of $96.06 and a 1-year high of $124.83. The firm has a market cap of $248.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 0.62. The business's 50 day moving average is $118.05 and its 200-day moving average is $111.97. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

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

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