Eastern Bank Lowers Holdings in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS)

Eastern Bank reduced its stake in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 87.7% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 11,372 shares of the company’s stock after selling 81,194 shares during the period. Eastern Bank’s holdings in Novartis were worth $1,268,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Brighton Jones LLC raised its stake in Novartis by 76.5% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,153 shares of the company’s stock worth $599,000 after purchasing an additional 2,666 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans acquired a new stake in shares of Novartis during the 4th quarter worth $204,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of Novartis by 35.6% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 423,142 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,176,000 after buying an additional 111,066 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its holdings in Novartis by 34.8% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 47,158 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,589,000 after acquiring an additional 12,184 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Summit Financial LLC boosted its holdings in Novartis by 19.1% in the fourth quarter. Summit Financial LLC now owns 4,515 shares of the company’s stock valued at $439,000 after acquiring an additional 725 shares during the last quarter. 13.12% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, BNP Paribas upgraded Novartis to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Novartis presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $123.67.

Novartis Stock Down 0.4%

Shares of NYSE NVS opened at $116.72 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $117.87 and a 200 day moving average price of $111.44. The company has a market cap of $246.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.99, a P/E/G ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 0.59. Novartis AG has a 12-month low of $96.06 and a 12-month high of $124.83. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 17th. The company reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.38 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $14.05 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.94 billion. Novartis had a return on equity of 41.08% and a net margin of 25.64%. The company’s revenue was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.97 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Novartis AG will post 8.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.