Marcum Wealth LLC Takes $216,000 Position in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS)

Marcum Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 2,033 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $216,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Novartis by 21.6% during the 4th quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 5,904 shares of the company’s stock worth $596,000 after buying an additional 1,050 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. lifted its stake in Novartis by 10.6% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 20,560 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,076,000 after purchasing an additional 1,974 shares in the last quarter. Naviter Wealth LLC raised its stake in shares of Novartis by 24.5% in the fourth quarter. Naviter Wealth LLC now owns 41,219 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,162,000 after acquiring an additional 8,116 shares in the last quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Novartis by 6.5% in the first quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 180,764 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,485,000 after acquiring an additional 11,080 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc raised its stake in Novartis by 314.8% in the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 55,096 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,563,000 after buying an additional 41,815 shares in the last quarter. 13.12% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Novartis from $121.00 to $122.50 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Barclays upgraded shares of Novartis to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, June 24th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Novartis from $114.00 to $116.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Novartis in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $120.00 target price for the company. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “hold” rating on shares of Novartis in a report on Friday, July 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $118.13.

Novartis Price Performance

Shares of NYSE NVS traded up $0.21 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $110.06. 1,384,785 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,470,906. Novartis AG has a fifty-two week low of $92.19 and a fifty-two week high of $113.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 0.93 and a quick ratio of 0.72. The firm has a market cap of $224.96 billion, a PE ratio of 14.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 0.57. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $107.18 and a 200-day simple moving average of $102.44.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 18th. The company reported $1.97 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.87 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $12.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.24 billion. Novartis had a net margin of 33.76% and a return on equity of 34.56%. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.83 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Novartis AG will post 7.41 EPS 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.