Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. Buys 1,077 Shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS)

Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 176.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,688 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,077 shares during the quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc.’s holdings in Novartis were worth $164,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC acquired a new position in Novartis during the third quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. acquired a new position in Novartis in the 2nd quarter valued at $30,000. Fortitude Family Office LLC raised its holdings in Novartis by 503.8% in the 3rd quarter. Fortitude Family Office LLC now owns 320 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 267 shares during the period. Clean Yield Group acquired a new position in Novartis during the 3rd quarter worth $43,000. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its holdings in Novartis by 782.0% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 785 shares of the company’s stock valued at $76,000 after acquiring an additional 696 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 13.12% of the company’s stock.

Novartis Trading Down 1.4 %

NYSE:NVS opened at $97.73 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $100.97 and its 200-day simple moving average is $109.12. Novartis AG has a fifty-two week low of $92.35 and a fifty-two week high of $120.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 0.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $199.76 billion, a PE ratio of 11.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.57.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The company reported $2.06 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.94 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $12.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.62 billion. Novartis had a net margin of 35.96% and a return on equity of 34.80%. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.74 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Novartis AG will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on NVS. HSBC lowered Novartis from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Novartis from $118.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Erste Group Bank reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Novartis in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and seven have given a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $121.50.

Novartis 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.