First Hawaiian Bank Increases Stock Holdings in Novartis AG $NVS

First Hawaiian Bank raised its stake in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 2.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 20,707 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 488 shares during the quarter. First Hawaiian Bank’s holdings in Novartis were worth $2,308,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Novartis by 5.2% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,606,724 shares of the company’s stock valued at $959,535,000 after buying an additional 422,869 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Novartis by 60.3% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,660,485 shares of the company’s stock valued at $408,071,000 after buying an additional 1,377,252 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Novartis by 2.2% in the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,180,281 shares of the company’s stock valued at $243,058,000 after buying an additional 47,690 shares in the last quarter. New Vernon Capital Holdings II LLC boosted its stake in shares of Novartis by 12,664.1% in the first quarter. New Vernon Capital Holdings II LLC now owns 1,383,244 shares of the company’s stock valued at $154,204,000 after buying an additional 1,372,407 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Scharf Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Novartis by 4.6% in the first quarter. Scharf Investments LLC now owns 1,258,639 shares of the company’s stock valued at $140,313,000 after buying an additional 55,316 shares in the last quarter. 13.12% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on NVS. Wall Street Zen downgraded Novartis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 22nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “buy” rating on shares of Novartis in a research note on Thursday, August 21st. Morgan Stanley upgraded 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. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “sell” rating and issued a $118.00 price target (down from $119.00) on shares of Novartis in a research note on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $120.33.

Novartis Stock Performance

Shares of NVS stock opened at $124.12 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $121.72 and a 200 day moving average price of $115.73. The stock has a market cap of $262.19 billion, a PE ratio of 18.07, a P/E/G ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 0.63. Novartis AG has a 1 year low of $96.06 and a 1 year high of $130.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.82.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 17th. The company reported $2.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.38 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $14.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.94 billion. Novartis had a return on equity of 41.08% and a net margin of 25.64%.Novartis’s revenue was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.97 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Novartis AG will post 8.45 earnings per share 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.