Oxbow Advisors LLC Raises Holdings in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS)

Oxbow Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 5.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 26,882 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 1,480 shares during the quarter. Oxbow Advisors LLC’s holdings in Novartis were worth $2,616,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Novartis by 15.7% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 1,706,009 shares of the company’s stock valued at $196,225,000 after buying an additional 231,851 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Novartis by 5.5% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,353,412 shares of the company’s stock valued at $155,669,000 after acquiring an additional 70,314 shares in the last quarter. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC boosted its stake in Novartis by 4.7% in the fourth quarter. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC now owns 1,161,139 shares of the company’s stock valued at $112,990,000 after acquiring an additional 52,044 shares in the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Novartis by 2.9% in the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 938,844 shares of the company’s stock valued at $107,986,000 after acquiring an additional 26,317 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can boosted its stake in Novartis by 18.7% in the third quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 780,980 shares of the company’s stock valued at $90,289,000 after acquiring an additional 123,077 shares in the last quarter. 13.12% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on NVS. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Novartis from $118.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Novartis from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 8th. HSBC downgraded shares of Novartis from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Novartis from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Erste Group Bank reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Novartis in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Novartis presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $123.38.

Novartis Stock Up 2.0 %

NVS stock opened at $109.42 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $223.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.61, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.58. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $101.24 and a 200-day simple moving average of $108.15. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. Novartis AG has a 52 week low of $92.35 and a 52 week high of $120.92.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last released 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 net margin of 23.56% and a return on equity of 37.24%. Equities analysts forecast that Novartis AG will post 8.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.