Argent Trust Co Buys 1,234 Shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS)

Argent Trust Co grew its stake in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 3.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 36,857 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,234 shares during the quarter. Argent Trust Co’s holdings in Novartis were worth $4,109,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Raiffeisen Bank International AG purchased a new stake in Novartis during the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. Nexus Investment Management ULC purchased a new stake in shares of Novartis during the first quarter worth about $25,000. Tsfg LLC grew its stake in shares of Novartis by 366.0% in the first quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 233 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 183 shares during the last quarter. Park Square Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in Novartis during the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Finally, Alpine Bank Wealth Management bought a new position in Novartis during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Institutional investors own 13.12% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, BNP Paribas raised 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 given a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $123.67.

Novartis Stock Performance

Novartis stock opened at $115.25 on Monday. Novartis AG has a fifty-two week low of $96.06 and a fifty-two week high of $124.83. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $117.94 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $111.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.82. The stock has a market cap of $243.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.78, a PEG ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 0.62.

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