Financial Advocates Investment Management Sells 280 Shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS)

Financial Advocates Investment Management trimmed its position in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 3.1% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 8,823 shares of the company’s stock after selling 280 shares during the quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management’s holdings in Novartis were worth $859,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Novartis by 15.7% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 1,706,009 shares of the company’s stock worth $196,225,000 after acquiring an additional 231,851 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Novartis by 5.5% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,353,412 shares of the company’s stock worth $155,669,000 after purchasing an additional 70,314 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC raised its stake in Novartis by 2.9% in the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 938,844 shares of the company’s stock valued at $107,986,000 after purchasing an additional 26,317 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can lifted its position in Novartis by 18.7% during the third quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 780,980 shares of the company’s stock valued at $90,289,000 after purchasing an additional 123,077 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Novartis by 128.1% in the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 528,682 shares of the company’s stock worth $51,554,000 after buying an additional 296,890 shares during the last quarter. 13.12% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NVS has been the subject of a number of research reports. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Novartis from $118.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Erste Group Bank reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Novartis in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Novartis from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised Novartis from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, HSBC lowered Novartis from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $123.38.

Novartis Price Performance

Shares of NYSE NVS opened at $106.17 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $100.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $108.41. Novartis AG has a fifty-two week low of $92.35 and a fifty-two week high of $120.92. The company has a market capitalization of $217.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.06, a P/E/G ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a current ratio of 1.11.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 31st. The company reported $1.98 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.80 by $0.18. Novartis had a return on equity of 37.79% and a net margin of 23.56%. Analysts expect that Novartis AG will post 8.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.