Novartis AG $NVS Shares Sold by Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH

Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH lessened its stake in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 3.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 30,175 shares of the company’s stock after selling 1,050 shares during the quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH’s holdings in Novartis were worth $3,651,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of NVS. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Novartis by 5.2% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,606,724 shares of the company’s stock valued at $959,535,000 after purchasing an additional 422,869 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position in Novartis by 60.3% during 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 during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in 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 raised its position 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 worth $154,204,000 after acquiring an additional 1,372,407 shares during the period. Finally, Scharf Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Novartis by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Scharf Investments LLC now owns 1,262,444 shares of the company’s stock worth $152,770,000 after acquiring an additional 3,805 shares in the last quarter. 13.12% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Novartis Stock Performance

Novartis stock opened at $123.75 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $122.31 and a 200-day simple moving average of $116.62. The stock has a market cap of $261.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.62. Novartis AG has a 1-year low of $96.06 and a 1-year high of $130.46.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 17th. The company reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.38 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $14.05 billion for 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%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.97 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Novartis AG will post 8.45 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NVS has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. 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 objective for the company in a research report on Friday, August 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “sell” rating and set a $118.00 target price (down previously from $119.00) on shares of Novartis in a research report on Friday, September 12th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Novartis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has assigned a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $120.33.

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.