Deroy & Devereaux Private Investment Counsel Inc. Sells 200 Shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS)

Deroy & Devereaux Private Investment Counsel Inc. decreased its stake in shares of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS) by 8.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,175 shares of the company’s stock after selling 200 shares during the quarter. Deroy & Devereaux Private Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Novartis were worth $232,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in NVS. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Novartis during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Private Ocean LLC acquired a new position in Novartis in the first quarter valued at about $25,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. acquired a new position in Novartis in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. New Millennium Group LLC acquired a new position in Novartis in the second quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, Clearstead Trust LLC boosted its position in Novartis by 73.5% in the first quarter. Clearstead Trust LLC now owns 269 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 114 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 13.12% of the company’s stock.

Novartis Trading Up 0.4 %

NVS opened at $120.45 on Friday. 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 company has a market cap of $246.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 0.57. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $110.90 and a 200 day simple moving average of $103.60. Novartis AG has a fifty-two week low of $92.19 and a fifty-two week high of $120.80.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 18th. The company reported $1.97 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.87 by $0.10. Novartis had a net margin of 33.76% and a return on equity of 34.56%. The firm had revenue of $12.87 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.24 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.83 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Novartis AG will post 7.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on shares of Novartis from $121.00 to $122.50 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Barclays raised shares of Novartis to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday, June 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Novartis in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Novartis in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. They set a “buy” rating and a $120.00 price target for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $118.13.

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.