Principal Financial Group Inc. Cuts Stake in Novartis AG $NVS

Principal Financial Group Inc. cut its stake in Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 13.4% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,809,158 shares of the company’s stock after selling 279,382 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Novartis were worth $249,429,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Novartis by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 7,239,366 shares of the company’s stock valued at $928,376,000 after buying an additional 117,952 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE raised its position in shares of Novartis by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 4,605,878 shares of the company’s stock worth $590,658,000 after buying an additional 78,390 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of Novartis by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,371,389 shares of the company’s stock worth $304,107,000 after buying an additional 168,573 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Novartis by 4.7% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,819,260 shares of the company’s stock valued at $233,302,000 after acquiring an additional 82,369 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in Novartis by 77.7% in the third quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 1,648,174 shares of the company’s stock valued at $211,362,000 after acquiring an additional 720,860 shares during the last quarter. 13.12% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have commented on the company. DZ Bank lowered Novartis from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Novartis from $143.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 26th. TD Cowen reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Novartis in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Argus upgraded shares of Novartis from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 price target on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 11th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Novartis in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $141.20.

Novartis Stock Performance

NYSE:NVS opened at $145.48 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $153.95 and a two-hundred day moving average of $144.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.65. The stock has a market cap of $277.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.84, a PEG ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 0.46. Novartis AG has a 1-year low of $104.93 and a 1-year high of $170.46.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The company reported $1.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.11 by ($0.12). Novartis had a return on equity of 38.82% and a net margin of 24.87%.The business had revenue of $13.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.44 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.28 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down .9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Novartis AG will post 8.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Novartis Profile

Novartis is a Swiss multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Basel that researches, develops, manufactures and commercializes prescription medicines and related health-care products. Formed through the 1996 merger of Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz, Novartis operates globally and focuses on bringing therapeutics from discovery through clinical development to commercial markets worldwide.

The company’s activities center on innovative pharmaceuticals across several therapeutic areas, including oncology, immunology, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, neuroscience and ophthalmology, alongside capabilities in advanced therapies such as biologics, cell and gene therapies.