WASHINGTON TRUST Co Raises Stock Holdings in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS)

WASHINGTON TRUST Co increased its stake in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 4.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 4,665 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the quarter. WASHINGTON TRUST Co’s holdings in Novartis were worth $454,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in Novartis by 26.9% during the 4th quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC now owns 89,074 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,668,000 after buying an additional 18,894 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its position in Novartis by 115.3% during the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 231,792 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,797,000 after buying an additional 124,111 shares in the last quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC increased its position in Novartis by 20.1% during the 4th quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 30,840 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,001,000 after buying an additional 5,164 shares in the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP increased its position in Novartis by 135.5% during the 3rd quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 39,976 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,598,000 after buying an additional 22,998 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC acquired a new position in Novartis during the 4th quarter valued at about $239,000. 13.12% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NVS has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised Novartis from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. StockNews.com raised Novartis from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, February 8th. HSBC lowered Novartis from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Novartis from $118.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on Novartis in a report on Wednesday. They issued an “underweight” rating on the stock. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $123.38.

Novartis Stock Down 2.1 %

Shares of NVS opened at $105.43 on Friday. Novartis AG has a 52 week low of $92.35 and a 52 week high of $120.92. The company has a quick ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. The company has a market capitalization of $215.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.93, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.58. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $100.70 and its 200-day moving average price is $108.30.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last issued its earnings results on Friday, January 31st. The company reported $1.98 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.80 by $0.18. Novartis had a return on equity of 37.24% and a net margin of 23.56%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Novartis AG will post 8.42 EPS for the current year.

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.