Checchi Capital Advisers LLC Sells 740 Shares of Novartis AG $NVS

Checchi Capital Advisers LLC reduced its position in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 4.1% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 17,475 shares of the company’s stock after selling 740 shares during the quarter. Checchi Capital Advisers LLC’s holdings in Novartis were worth $2,115,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of NVS. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Novartis by 60.3% during the first 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. New Vernon Capital Holdings II LLC raised its holdings in Novartis by 12,664.1% during 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 buying an additional 1,372,407 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Novartis by 5.2% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,606,724 shares of the company’s stock worth $959,535,000 after acquiring an additional 422,869 shares during the last quarter. Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Novartis in the 1st quarter worth about $24,763,000. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its holdings in shares of Novartis by 38.5% in the 2nd quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 310,389 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,560,000 after acquiring an additional 86,351 shares during the last quarter. 13.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Novartis Trading Up 1.1%

Shares of NVS opened at $132.41 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $279.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 0.64. 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 business has a 50-day moving average of $123.57 and a 200 day moving average of $117.22. Novartis AG has a fifty-two week low of $96.06 and a fifty-two week high of $133.37.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $14.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.94 billion. Novartis had a net margin of 25.64% and a return on equity of 41.08%. Novartis’s revenue was up 12.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.97 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Novartis AG will post 8.45 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently commented on NVS. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Novartis in a research note on Saturday, September 27th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Novartis in a research report on Thursday, August 21st. Wall Street Zen lowered Novartis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “sell” rating and issued a $118.00 price target (down from $119.00) on shares of Novartis in a research report on Friday, September 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Novartis from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $123.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, August 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $120.33.

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.