Pathway Financial Advisers LLC Makes New $57,000 Investment in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS)

Pathway Financial Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 585 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $57,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Private Ocean LLC acquired a new stake in Novartis in the first quarter valued at $25,000. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Novartis in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Novartis in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Clearstead Trust LLC boosted its holdings in Novartis by 73.5% during the first quarter. Clearstead Trust LLC now owns 269 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 114 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Beacon Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Novartis by 149.3% in the first quarter. Beacon Capital Management LLC now owns 354 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 212 shares in the last quarter. 13.12% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on NVS shares. Barclays upgraded Novartis to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, June 24th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on Novartis from $121.00 to $122.50 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of Novartis in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $120.00 price objective on the stock. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Novartis from $114.00 to $116.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Novartis in a report on Friday, July 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Novartis currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $118.13.

Novartis Price Performance

NVS stock traded up $0.77 during trading on Friday, hitting $112.87. The stock had a trading volume of 1,678,907 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,504,443. The stock has a market cap of $230.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 0.93. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $106.99 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $102.47. Novartis AG has a 1-year low of $92.19 and a 1-year high of $113.00.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 18th. The company reported $1.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.87 by $0.10. Novartis had a net margin of 33.76% and a return on equity of 34.56%. The business had revenue of $12.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.24 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.83 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Novartis AG will post 7.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Novartis 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.