Pallas Capital Advisors LLC Buys Shares of 1,783 Novartis AG $NVS

Pallas Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 1,783 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $216,000.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in NVS. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Novartis by 60.3% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,660,485 shares of the company’s stock valued at $408,071,000 after acquiring an additional 1,377,252 shares during the period. New Vernon Capital Holdings II LLC lifted 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 valued at $154,204,000 after purchasing an additional 1,372,407 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Novartis by 14,376.4% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 727,296 shares of the company’s stock valued at $81,079,000 after purchasing an additional 722,272 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position 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 during the period. Finally, Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Novartis during the 1st quarter valued at $24,763,000. Institutional investors own 13.12% of the company’s stock.

Novartis Trading Up 0.4%

Shares of NYSE:NVS opened at $123.44 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $260.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 0.63. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $121.81 and its 200-day moving average price is $116.29. 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 posted 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. Novartis had a return on equity of 41.08% and a net margin of 25.64%.The company 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 firm posted $1.97 EPS. Novartis’s revenue was up 12.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Novartis AG will post 8.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have issued reports on NVS. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “sell” rating and issued a $118.00 price objective (down previously from $119.00) on shares of Novartis in a research note on Friday, September 12th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Novartis in a research report on Thursday, August 21st. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Novartis from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $123.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, August 8th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Novartis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has issued a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Novartis presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $120.33.

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.