Liberty Wealth Management LLC Acquires 296 Shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS)

Liberty Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 13.1% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 2,551 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 296 shares during the quarter. Liberty Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Novartis were worth $248,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in NVS. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Novartis by 26.9% in the fourth quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC now owns 89,074 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,668,000 after buying an additional 18,894 shares in the last quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Novartis by 20.1% in the fourth quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 30,840 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,001,000 after buying an additional 5,164 shares in the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP lifted its position in shares of Novartis by 135.5% in the third quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 39,976 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,598,000 after buying an additional 22,998 shares in the last quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Novartis in the fourth quarter worth about $239,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Novartis by 13.7% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 157,256 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,088,000 after buying an additional 18,990 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 13.12% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NVS has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. HSBC downgraded Novartis from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. StockNews.com upgraded Novartis from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 8th. Morgan Stanley began coverage on Novartis in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. They set an “underweight” rating on the stock. Barclays restated an “underweight” rating on shares of Novartis in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Novartis from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $123.38.

Novartis Trading Down 2.3 %

NVS opened at $108.77 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $222.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.50, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.53. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $104.89 and its 200-day moving average price is $107.83. Novartis AG 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 quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 1.04.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last released its earnings results on Friday, January 31st. The company reported $1.98 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.80 by $0.18. Novartis had a return on equity of 37.24% and a net margin of 23.56%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Novartis AG will post 8.45 EPS for the current year.

Novartis Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 12th were paid a $3.8695 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 12th. Novartis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 42.69%.

About Novartis

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.