Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of Novartis (NYSE:NVS - Free Report) in a research report report published on Wednesday, Marketbeat reports. The firm issued an underweight rating on the stock.
Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised Novartis from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Erste Group Bank reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of Novartis in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. StockNews.com raised Novartis from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, February 8th. HSBC downgraded Novartis from a "hold" rating to a "reduce" rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Novartis from $118.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Novartis presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $123.38.
Read Our Latest Report on NVS
Novartis Trading Down 2.1 %
Shares of Novartis stock traded down $2.28 on Wednesday, hitting $105.43. 1,271,629 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,043,258. Novartis has a one year low of $92.35 and a one year high of $120.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 0.90. The company has a fifty day moving average of $100.70 and a two-hundred day moving average of $108.30. The company has a market capitalization of $215.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.58.
Novartis (NYSE:NVS - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Friday, January 31st. The company reported $1.98 EPS for the quarter, beating 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Novartis will post 8.42 earnings per share for the current year.
Institutional Trading of Novartis
A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of NVS. ORG Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Novartis by 17.7% during the third quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 997 shares of the company's stock valued at $115,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. CX Institutional increased its position in shares of Novartis by 3.9% during the third quarter. CX Institutional now owns 10,679 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,228,000 after acquiring an additional 401 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning increased its position in shares of Novartis by 4.1% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 344,951 shares of the company's stock valued at $39,676,000 after acquiring an additional 13,486 shares during the last quarter. Occidental Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Novartis by 8.0% during the third quarter. Occidental Asset Management LLC now owns 2,690 shares of the company's stock valued at $309,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. increased its position in shares of Novartis by 1.6% during the third quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 10,662 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,226,000 after acquiring an additional 170 shares during the last quarter. 13.12% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
About Novartis
(
Get Free Report)
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.
Read More
Before you consider Novartis, you'll want to hear this.
MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and Novartis wasn't on the list.
While Novartis currently has a "Reduce" rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys.
View The Five Stocks Here
If a company's CEO, COO, and CFO were all selling shares of their stock, would you want to know? MarketBeat just compiled its list of the twelve stocks that corporate insiders are abandoning. Complete the form below to see which companies made the list.
Get This Free Report
Like this article? Share it with a colleague.
Link copied to clipboard.
