Novartis Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NYSE:NVS)

Posted by Defense World Staff on Apr 7th, 2023

Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS – Get Rating) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Traders bought 4,141 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 38% compared to the average daily volume of 3,007 call options.

Novartis Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE:NVS opened at $96.26 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $212.98 billion, a PE ratio of 30.37, a P/E/G ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 0.54. The company has a current ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34. Novartis has a twelve month low of $74.09 and a twelve month high of $96.56. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $86.47 and a 200-day simple moving average of $85.52.

Novartis (NYSE:NVS – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 1st. The company reported $1.51 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.42 by $0.09. Novartis had a net margin of 13.75% and a return on equity of 21.79%. The firm had revenue of $12.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.85 billion. On average, equities analysts predict that Novartis will post 6.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Novartis Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared an annual dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 20th. Investors of record on Friday, March 10th were given a $3.4694 dividend. This is an increase from Novartis’s previous annual dividend of $1.18. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 9th. This represents a yield of 2.6%. Novartis’s dividend payout ratio is 71.61%.

Institutional Trading of Novartis

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of NVS. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in Novartis by 102,209.0% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,522,057 shares of the company’s stock valued at $410,241,000 after purchasing an additional 4,517,637 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in Novartis by 153.4% in the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 4,127,082 shares of the company’s stock valued at $374,409,000 after buying an additional 2,498,355 shares during the period. MUFG Securities EMEA plc acquired a new position in Novartis in the 4th quarter valued at $55,110,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in Novartis by 27.2% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,781,596 shares of the company’s stock valued at $244,085,000 after buying an additional 594,194 shares during the period. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. increased its stake in Novartis by 872.0% in the 4th quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 619,932 shares of the company’s stock valued at $56,240,000 after buying an additional 556,154 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 8.12% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently weighed in on NVS shares. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Novartis from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 6th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Novartis from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Novartis from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 3rd. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Novartis from CHF 82 to CHF 84 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 14th. Finally, Citigroup cut shares of Novartis from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 26th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Novartis presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $82.63.

Novartis Company Profile

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Novartis AG is a holding company, which engages in the development, manufacture, and marketing of healthcare products. It operates through the following segments: Innovative Medicines, Sandoz, and Corporate. The Innovative Medicines segment researches, develops, manufactures, distributes and sells patented pharmaceuticals, and is composed of two business units: Novartis Oncology and Novartis Pharmaceuticals.