BXM Wealth LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Novartis AG $NVS

BXM Wealth LLC increased its stake in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 726.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 42,817 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 37,639 shares during the quarter. BXM Wealth LLC’s holdings in Novartis were worth $5,903,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Lockheed Martin Investment Management Co. increased its stake in Novartis by 15.6% in the third quarter. Lockheed Martin Investment Management Co. now owns 85,200 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,926,000 after purchasing an additional 11,500 shares during the period. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Novartis by 5.5% during the third quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 132,536 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,001,000 after purchasing an additional 6,924 shares during the period. Todd Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Novartis by 5.8% during the third quarter. Todd Asset Management LLC now owns 439,879 shares of the company’s stock valued at $56,411,000 after purchasing an additional 23,978 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Novartis by 1.7% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 7,239,366 shares of the company’s stock worth $928,376,000 after purchasing an additional 117,952 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Novartis by 27.7% in the third quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 64,760 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,305,000 after purchasing an additional 14,032 shares during the last quarter. 13.12% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on NVS. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Novartis to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 19th. DZ Bank cut Novartis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Barclays upgraded Novartis from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 6th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Novartis from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (a-)” rating in a report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Citigroup reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Novartis in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $141.20.

Novartis Trading Down 0.1%

NYSE NVS opened at $153.91 on Monday. Novartis AG has a 52 week low of $97.71 and a 52 week high of $170.46. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $156.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $140.99. The company has a quick ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. The firm has a market cap of $325.13 billion, a PE ratio of 21.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 0.52.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 3rd. The company reported $2.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.99 by $0.04. Novartis had a return on equity of 40.53% and a net margin of 25.65%.The firm had revenue of $13.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.85 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.98 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Novartis AG will post 8.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Novartis Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared an annual dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 11th were given a dividend of $4.773 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 11th. This represents a yield of 306.0%. Novartis’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 43.02%.

About Novartis

Novartis is a Swiss multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Basel that researches, develops, manufactures and commercializes prescription medicines and related health-care products. Formed through the 1996 merger of Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz, Novartis operates globally and focuses on bringing therapeutics from discovery through clinical development to commercial markets worldwide.

The company’s activities center on innovative pharmaceuticals across several therapeutic areas, including oncology, immunology, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, neuroscience and ophthalmology, alongside capabilities in advanced therapies such as biologics, cell and gene therapies.