Davis Investment Partners LLC Purchases Shares of 5,658 Novartis AG $NVS

Davis Investment Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 5,658 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $864,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. RFG Advisory LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Novartis by 58.7% in the first quarter. RFG Advisory LLC now owns 3,592 shares of the company’s stock worth $549,000 after buying an additional 1,329 shares during the last quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Novartis by 1.5% during the first quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 8,801 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,344,000 after buying an additional 126 shares during the last quarter. Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. increased its holdings in Novartis by 6.9% during the first quarter. Brown Lisle Cummings Inc. now owns 1,687 shares of the company’s stock valued at $258,000 after buying an additional 109 shares during the last quarter. Apella Capital LLC raised its position in Novartis by 29.8% in the first quarter. Apella Capital LLC now owns 2,908 shares of the company’s stock worth $442,000 after acquiring an additional 668 shares during the period. Finally, Bar Harbor Wealth Management raised its position in Novartis by 2.7% in the first quarter. Bar Harbor Wealth Management now owns 2,992 shares of the company’s stock worth $457,000 after acquiring an additional 79 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 13.12% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NVS has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Argus raised shares of Novartis from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 11th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Novartis from $143.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Novartis to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 19th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered Novartis from a “buy (a-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Seven equities 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $141.20.

Novartis Stock Performance

NYSE NVS opened at $153.28 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $292.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 0.46. The company has a quick ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $148.95 and a 200-day moving average price of $149.30. Novartis AG has a twelve month low of $112.34 and a twelve month high of $170.46.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 27th. The company reported $1.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.11 by ($0.12). The business had revenue of $13.52 billion for 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 for the quarter was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.28 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Novartis AG will post 8.82 EPS for the current fiscal 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.