Burns J W & Co. Inc. NY Acquires 170 Shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS)

Burns J W & Co. Inc. NY lifted its holdings in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 2.1% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,084 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 170 shares during the quarter. Burns J W & Co. Inc. NY’s holdings in Novartis were worth $782,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of NVS. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Novartis in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. purchased a new position in Novartis during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Operose Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Novartis during the third quarter valued at about $28,000. Planned Solutions Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Novartis in the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. Finally, AdvisorNet Financial Inc boosted its position in shares of Novartis by 480.0% in the fourth quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 348 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 288 shares during the period. 13.12% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NVS has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of Novartis in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $120.00 target price on the stock. Barclays raised Novartis to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday, June 24th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Novartis from $114.00 to $116.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $116.67.

Novartis Price Performance

Shares of NVS stock traded down $0.09 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $106.46. 1,516,862 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,321,776. The company has a market capitalization of $217.60 billion, a PE ratio of 14.37, a PEG ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a current ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Novartis AG has a 12-month low of $92.19 and a 12-month high of $108.78. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $102.22 and its 200-day simple moving average is $101.19.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The company reported $1.80 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.73 by $0.07. Novartis had a return on equity of 32.15% and a net margin of 31.33%. The business had revenue of $11.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.50 billion. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Novartis AG will post 7.27 earnings per share 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.