Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC Sells 39,456 Shares of Novartis AG $NVS

Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC trimmed its stake in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 10.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 352,695 shares of the company’s stock after selling 39,456 shares during the period. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC’s holdings in Novartis were worth $42,680,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Novartis by 60.3% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,660,485 shares of the company’s stock valued at $408,071,000 after buying an additional 1,377,252 shares during the last quarter. New Vernon Capital Holdings II LLC boosted its stake in Novartis by 12,664.1% in the first quarter. New Vernon Capital Holdings II LLC now owns 1,383,244 shares of the company’s stock valued at $154,204,000 after acquiring an additional 1,372,407 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can boosted its stake in Novartis by 489.1% in the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 564,990 shares of the company’s stock valued at $68,369,000 after acquiring an additional 469,080 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Novartis by 5.2% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,606,724 shares of the company’s stock worth $959,535,000 after purchasing an additional 422,869 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Midwest Trust Co purchased a new stake in shares of Novartis during the 2nd quarter valued at $32,297,000. 13.12% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently issued reports on NVS shares. Wall Street Zen lowered Novartis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 1st. Cfra set a $126.00 price objective on shares of Novartis and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Novartis in a research note on Thursday, August 21st. Cowen reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Novartis in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Novartis in a report on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $122.33.

Novartis Stock Performance

Shares of NVS stock opened at $130.44 on Friday. Novartis AG has a 52-week low of $96.06 and a 52-week high of $134.00. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. The stock has a market cap of $275.54 billion, a PE ratio of 17.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 0.60. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $128.17 and a 200-day simple moving average of $122.36.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The company reported $2.25 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.26 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $14.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.70 billion. Novartis had a net margin of 26.49% and a return on equity of 41.21%. Novartis’s revenue was up 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.06 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Novartis AG will post 8.45 EPS for the current 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.