Novartis AG $NVS Shares Sold by American Century Companies Inc.

American Century Companies Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 21.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 356,447 shares of the company’s stock after selling 96,946 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc.’s holdings in Novartis were worth $39,737,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Novartis by 5.2% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,606,724 shares of the company’s stock worth $959,535,000 after purchasing an additional 422,869 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in Novartis by 60.3% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,660,485 shares of the company’s stock worth $408,071,000 after purchasing an additional 1,377,252 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in Novartis by 23.1% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,132,591 shares of the company’s stock worth $207,522,000 after purchasing an additional 399,862 shares during the period. Scharf Investments LLC increased its position in Novartis by 4.6% during the 1st quarter. Scharf Investments LLC now owns 1,258,639 shares of the company’s stock worth $140,313,000 after purchasing an additional 55,316 shares during the period. Finally, Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Novartis during the 4th quarter worth approximately $109,739,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 13.12% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Morgan Stanley raised Novartis from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $123.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $123.50.

Novartis Trading Up 1.8%

NYSE:NVS opened at $127.1780 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $119.10 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $113.41. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The company has a market cap of $268.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 0.62. Novartis AG has a twelve month low of $96.06 and a twelve month high of $127.68.

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