Cambiar Investors LLC Trims Position in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS)

Cambiar Investors LLC reduced its position in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS - Free Report) by 2.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 121,975 shares of the company's stock after selling 3,634 shares during the period. Cambiar Investors LLC's holdings in Novartis were worth $11,869,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Carnegie Investment Counsel lifted its stake in Novartis by 7.5% during the 3rd quarter. Carnegie Investment Counsel now owns 11,869 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,365,000 after acquiring an additional 832 shares in the last quarter. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA lifted its stake in Novartis by 9.2% during the 3rd quarter. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA now owns 4,304 shares of the company's stock valued at $495,000 after acquiring an additional 361 shares in the last quarter. Redhawk Wealth Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Novartis by 12.7% during the 3rd quarter. Redhawk Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 11,099 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,277,000 after acquiring an additional 1,247 shares in the last quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Novartis by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC now owns 20,873 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,401,000 after acquiring an additional 823 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Boston Mountain Money Management Inc. lifted its stake in Novartis by 13.1% during the 3rd quarter. Boston Mountain Money Management Inc. now owns 2,198 shares of the company's stock valued at $253,000 after acquiring an additional 254 shares in the last quarter. 13.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NVS has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Novartis from $118.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on Novartis in a research report on Wednesday. They set an "underweight" rating for the company. HSBC lowered Novartis from a "hold" rating to a "reduce" rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. UBS Group reaffirmed a "neutral" rating on shares of Novartis in a research report on Thursday. Finally, StockNews.com raised Novartis from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, February 8th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $123.38.

Novartis Stock Performance

NVS traded down $2.28 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $105.43. The stock had a trading volume of 1,271,629 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,989,618. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $100.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $108.33. Novartis AG has a 1 year low of $92.35 and a 1 year high of $120.92. The stock has a market cap of $215.50 billion, a PE ratio of 17.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a quick ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 31st. The company reported $1.98 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.80 by $0.18. Novartis had a return on equity of 37.24% and a net margin of 23.56%. Equities analysts anticipate that Novartis AG will post 8.42 earnings per share for the current year.

Novartis Company 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.