Novartis AG $NVS Shares Sold by Cohen Investment Advisors LLC

Cohen Investment Advisors LLC lessened its stake in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 6.6% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,603 shares of the company’s stock after selling 255 shares during the quarter. Cohen Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Novartis were worth $436,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Ignite Planners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Novartis by 3.0% in the 2nd quarter. Ignite Planners LLC now owns 5,970 shares of the company’s stock valued at $682,000 after purchasing an additional 174 shares during the last quarter. Spectrum Asset Management Inc. NB CA purchased a new stake in Novartis during the 2nd quarter worth $2,984,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Novartis by 9.1% during the 2nd quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 12,957 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,568,000 after purchasing an additional 1,081 shares during the period. Godsey & Gibb Inc. boosted its position in Novartis by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. Godsey & Gibb Inc. now owns 196,287 shares of the company’s stock worth $23,753,000 after purchasing an additional 830 shares during the period. Finally, Mraz Amerine & Associates Inc. boosted its position in Novartis by 37.2% during the 2nd quarter. Mraz Amerine & Associates Inc. now owns 6,298 shares of the company’s stock worth $762,000 after purchasing an additional 1,706 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 13.12% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on NVS. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Novartis from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $123.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, August 8th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Novartis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “sell” rating and set a $118.00 price target (down from $119.00) on shares of Novartis in a research report on Friday, September 12th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Novartis in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Novartis in a research report on Thursday, August 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $120.33.

Novartis Price Performance

NVS opened at $132.36 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $124.50 and a 200-day moving average of $117.59. The company has a market capitalization of $279.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.27, a PEG ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 0.64. Novartis AG has a 1-year low of $96.06 and a 1-year high of $133.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.82.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 17th. The company reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.38 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $14.05 billion during 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 company’s revenue was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.97 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Novartis AG will post 8.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Novartis 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.