D.A. Davidson & CO. Has $50.10 Million Stock Position in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS)

D.A. Davidson & CO. lessened its holdings in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 4.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 496,508 shares of the company’s stock after selling 20,901 shares during the quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO.’s holdings in Novartis were worth $50,103,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. BlackRock Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Novartis by 18.3% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 1,556,539 shares of the company’s stock worth $136,587,000 after acquiring an additional 240,710 shares in the last quarter. Dakota Wealth Management raised its position in shares of Novartis by 3.9% in the first quarter. Dakota Wealth Management now owns 4,869 shares of the company’s stock valued at $427,000 after purchasing an additional 185 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Novartis by 42.4% during the 1st quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 10,996 shares of the company’s stock worth $965,000 after buying an additional 3,272 shares during the period. Baird Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in Novartis by 4.5% in the 1st quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 95,477 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,379,000 after buying an additional 4,122 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Zions Bancorporation N.A. raised its holdings in Novartis by 22.8% in the 1st quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 3,528 shares of the company’s stock worth $309,000 after acquiring an additional 655 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 7.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley upgraded Novartis from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 25th. StockNews.com started coverage on Novartis in a research report on Monday. They issued a “strong-buy” rating for the company. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $84.50.

Novartis Stock Performance

NVS stock traded up $1.12 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $96.37. The stock had a trading volume of 272,528 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,816,102. Novartis AG has a 52 week low of $79.98 and a 52 week high of $105.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $204.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.60, a P/E/G ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $97.21 and a 200 day simple moving average of $99.64.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 23rd. The company reported $1.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.70 by $0.04. Novartis had a net margin of 15.35% and a return on equity of 28.27%. The firm had revenue of $11.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.05 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.58 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Novartis AG will post 6.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Novartis Profile

Novartis AG researches, develops, manufactures, and markets 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.