Brokerages Set Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) Price Target at $123.50

Key Points

• Novartis AG has an average analyst recommendation of "Hold", with two sell ratings, seven hold ratings, one buy rating, and one strong buy rating from eleven analysts covering the stock.
• The average 1-year target price for Novartis is $123.50, with recent upgrades from BNP Paribas and Morgan Stanley boosting its rating to strong buy and setting a target price of $123.00, respectively.
• In its last quarterly earnings report, Novartis achieved $2.42 EPS, beating estimates, with a revenue of $14.05 billion, reflecting a 12.3% increase year-over-year.

Shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS - Get Free Report) have been assigned a consensus rating of "Hold" from the eleven research firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have issued a hold recommendation, one has given a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $123.50.

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on NVS shares. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of 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. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Novartis to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, April 15th.

Novartis Stock Performance

NVS traded up $0.88 during trading on Friday, hitting $116.80. The stock had a trading volume of 1,585,010 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,143,527. The firm has a market cap of $246.73 billion, a PE ratio of 17.00, a P/E/G ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 0.62. Novartis has a 12 month low of $96.06 and a 12 month high of $124.83. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $118.26 and a 200-day simple moving average of $112.37.

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Novartis

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in 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 buying an additional 422,869 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its position in 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 buying an additional 1,377,252 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in Novartis by 2.2% in the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,180,281 shares of the company's stock valued at $243,058,000 after buying an additional 47,690 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in Novartis by 8.0% in the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,736,891 shares of the company's stock valued at $210,181,000 after buying an additional 128,302 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New Vernon Capital Holdings II LLC boosted its position in Novartis by 12,664.1% in the first quarter. New Vernon Capital Holdings II LLC now owns 1,383,244 shares of the company's stock valued at $154,204,000 after buying an additional 1,372,407 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 13.12% of the company's stock.

About Novartis

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.