Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Purchases New Shares in Novartis AG $NVS

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm purchased 4,606 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $635,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. MQS Management LLC acquired a new position in Novartis during the 4th quarter worth $299,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Novartis by 19.4% during the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,823 shares of the company’s stock worth $527,000 after acquiring an additional 622 shares in the last quarter. Evoke Wealth LLC grew its holdings in Novartis by 36.0% during the 4th quarter. Evoke Wealth LLC now owns 3,785 shares of the company’s stock worth $522,000 after acquiring an additional 1,002 shares in the last quarter. Keudell Morrison Wealth Management acquired a new position in Novartis during the 4th quarter worth $277,000. Finally, Axxcess Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Novartis by 210.8% during the 4th quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 24,651 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,398,000 after acquiring an additional 16,720 shares in the last quarter. 13.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NVS has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Novartis from $143.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 26th. Argus raised shares of Novartis from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 11th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Novartis to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 19th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Novartis from a “buy (a-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, TD Cowen reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Novartis in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $141.20.

Novartis Stock Performance

Novartis stock opened at $150.22 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $149.79 and its 200-day simple moving average is $146.74. The company has a market cap of $286.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 0.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.65. Novartis AG has a fifty-two week low of $111.06 and a fifty-two week high of $170.46.

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

Novartis Profile

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.