Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. Has $67.83 Million Stock Holdings in Novartis AG $NVS

Harvest Portfolios Group Inc. grew its stake in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 1.4% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 492,014 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,684 shares during the period. Novartis makes up approximately 1.2% of Harvest Portfolios Group Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 21st largest position. Harvest Portfolios Group Inc.’s holdings in Novartis were worth $67,834,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Novartis by 1.7% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 7,239,366 shares of the company’s stock valued at $928,376,000 after purchasing an additional 117,952 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in shares of Novartis by 1.7% in the third quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 4,605,878 shares of the company’s stock valued at $590,658,000 after purchasing an additional 78,390 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Novartis by 7.7% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,371,389 shares of the company’s stock valued at $304,107,000 after purchasing an additional 168,573 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Novartis by 4.7% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,819,260 shares of the company’s stock valued at $233,302,000 after purchasing an additional 82,369 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Novartis by 77.7% in the third quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 1,648,174 shares of the company’s stock valued at $211,362,000 after purchasing an additional 720,860 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 13.12% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NVS has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Argus upgraded Novartis from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 target price on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 11th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Novartis from a “buy (a-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. TD Cowen restated a “hold” rating on shares of Novartis in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. DZ Bank cut shares of Novartis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 9th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of Novartis to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 19th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Novartis currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $141.20.

Novartis Trading Up 0.8%

Shares of Novartis stock opened at $150.39 on Wednesday. Novartis AG has a 52-week low of $111.06 and a 52-week high of $170.46. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $150.54 and its 200 day simple moving average is $145.40. The stock has a market capitalization of $286.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.55, a P/E/G ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.85.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 27th. The company reported $1.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.11 by ($0.12). Novartis had a net margin of 24.87% and a return on equity of 38.82%. The firm had revenue of $13.52 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.44 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.28 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down .9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Novartis AG will post 8.84 EPS for the current year.

About Novartis

Novartis is a Swiss multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Basel that researches, develops, manufactures and commercializes prescription medicines and related health-care products. Formed through the 1996 merger of Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz, Novartis operates globally and focuses on bringing therapeutics from discovery through clinical development to commercial markets worldwide.

The company’s activities center on innovative pharmaceuticals across several therapeutic areas, including oncology, immunology, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, neuroscience and ophthalmology, alongside capabilities in advanced therapies such as biologics, cell and gene therapies.