Novartis AG $NVS Shares Sold by Legacy Financial Advisors Inc.

Legacy Financial Advisors Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 1.5% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,509 shares of the company’s stock after selling 212 shares during the quarter. Legacy Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Novartis were worth $1,506,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Colonial Trust Advisors boosted its holdings in Novartis by 355.2% in the first quarter. Colonial Trust Advisors now owns 2,276 shares of the company’s stock worth $254,000 after purchasing an additional 1,776 shares during the period. RWA Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Novartis by 2.3% in the first quarter. RWA Wealth Partners LLC now owns 9,782 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,091,000 after purchasing an additional 217 shares during the period. Qtron Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Novartis by 10.5% in the first quarter. Qtron Investments LLC now owns 11,759 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,311,000 after purchasing an additional 1,114 shares during the period. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Novartis by 2.3% in the first quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 16,398 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,828,000 after purchasing an additional 372 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted 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 worth $243,058,000 after purchasing an additional 47,690 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 13.12% of the company’s stock.

Novartis Stock Performance

NVS stock opened at $123.96 on Tuesday. 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 capitalization of $261.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.04, a PEG ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 0.62. Novartis AG has a 1 year low of $96.06 and a 1 year high of $124.83. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $118.79 and its two-hundred day moving average is $113.23.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last issued 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. Novartis had a net margin of 25.64% and a return on equity of 41.08%. The business had revenue of $14.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.94 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.97 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Novartis AG will post 8.45 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Novartis from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $123.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, August 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Novartis currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $123.50.

About Novartis

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.