HB Wealth Management LLC Has $442,000 Holdings in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS)

HB Wealth Management LLC lowered its stake in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 6.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,377 shares of the company’s stock after selling 300 shares during the quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Novartis were worth $442,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BlackRock Inc. grew its stake in Novartis by 18.3% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 1,556,539 shares of the company’s stock valued at $136,587,000 after buying an additional 240,710 shares during the last quarter. Dakota Wealth Management grew its position in shares of Novartis by 3.9% in the first quarter. Dakota Wealth Management now owns 4,869 shares of the company’s stock valued at $427,000 after purchasing an additional 185 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Novartis by 42.4% in the first quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 10,996 shares of the company’s stock worth $965,000 after purchasing an additional 3,272 shares during the period. Baird Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Novartis by 4.5% during the 1st quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 95,477 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,379,000 after purchasing an additional 4,122 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Zions Bancorporation N.A. boosted its stake in Novartis by 22.8% during the 1st quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 3,528 shares of the company’s stock valued at $309,000 after purchasing an additional 655 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 13.12% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on NVS. HSBC lowered Novartis from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, December 18th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Novartis in a report on Wednesday, December 6th. They issued a “strong-buy” rating for the company. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of Novartis in a report on Tuesday, January 23rd. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $114.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, BMO Capital Markets assumed coverage on shares of Novartis in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. They set a “market perform” rating and a $114.00 price objective for the company. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Novartis currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $104.33.

Novartis Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of NVS stock opened at $95.88 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a current ratio of 1.15. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $102.01 and a 200-day moving average of $99.80. Novartis AG has a 52-week low of $89.76 and a 52-week high of $108.78. The stock has a market cap of $203.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 0.54.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The company reported $1.53 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.64 by ($0.11). Novartis had a return on equity of 29.90% and a net margin of 29.83%. The business had revenue of $11.42 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.69 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.51 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Novartis AG will post 7.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Novartis Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared an annual dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 8th were given a $3.7772 dividend. This represents a yield of 3.1%. This is a boost from Novartis’s previous annual dividend of $3.47. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 7th. Novartis’s dividend payout ratio is 34.26%.

About Novartis

Novartis AG researches, develops, manufactures, and markets healthcare products in Switzerland and internationally. It 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.