Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) Shares Sold by Freestone Capital Holdings LLC

Freestone Capital Holdings LLC cut its position in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 5.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 9,042 shares of the company’s stock after selling 560 shares during the quarter. Freestone Capital Holdings LLC’s holdings in Novartis were worth $832,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Novartis by 514.9% during the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 8,461,446 shares of the company’s stock worth $112,669,000 after purchasing an additional 7,085,365 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in Novartis by 19.4% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 7,604,681 shares of the company’s stock worth $699,631,000 after purchasing an additional 1,235,303 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in Novartis by 4.2% during the first quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 6,982,292 shares of the company’s stock worth $642,371,000 after purchasing an additional 279,999 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in Novartis by 6.2% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 6,488,196 shares of the company’s stock worth $588,609,000 after purchasing an additional 377,693 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Novartis by 3.0% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,173,671 shares of the company’s stock worth $567,974,000 after purchasing an additional 180,186 shares during the last quarter. 7.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on NVS shares. HSBC started coverage on Novartis in a research report on Friday, July 14th. They set a “buy” rating for the company. StockNews.com started coverage on Novartis in a research report on Thursday, August 17th. They set a “strong-buy” rating for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $80.00.

Novartis Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:NVS opened at $98.34 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $208.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.39, a P/E/G ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 0.54. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. Novartis AG has a 52 week low of $74.09 and a 52 week high of $105.61. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $101.40 and a 200-day simple moving average of $97.58.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 19th. The company reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.68 by $0.15. The business had revenue of $13.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.32 million. Novartis had a return on equity of 25.12% and a net margin of 14.76%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.56 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Novartis AG will post 6.91 EPS for the current year.

Novartis Profile

Novartis AG is a holding company, which engages in the development, manufacture, and marketing of healthcare products. It operates through the following segments: Innovative Medicines, Sandoz, and Corporate. The Innovative Medicines segment researches, develops, manufactures, distributes and sells patented pharmaceuticals, and is composed of two business units: Novartis Oncology and Novartis Pharmaceuticals.