Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) Stock Price Up 1.6% – Here’s What Happened

Shares of Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) shot up 1.6% on Friday . The stock traded as high as $60.10 and last traded at $59.68. 15,315,018 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 26% from the average session volume of 12,183,284 shares. The stock had previously closed at $58.74.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on NVO. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Novo Nordisk A/S from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 9th. Dbs Bank upgraded Novo Nordisk A/S from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, August 22nd. HSBC set a $70.00 price target on Novo Nordisk A/S in a research report on Wednesday. Barclays reissued an “equal weight” rating on shares of Novo Nordisk A/S in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, TD Cowen dropped their price objective on Novo Nordisk A/S from $105.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 19th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Novo Nordisk A/S currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $77.50.

Novo Nordisk A/S Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.56. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $54.92 and a 200 day simple moving average of $63.73. The company has a market capitalization of $266.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.68.

Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The company reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $11.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $77.51 billion. Novo Nordisk A/S had a return on equity of 78.64% and a net margin of 35.60%. On average, analysts anticipate that Novo Nordisk A/S will post 3.84 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Novo Nordisk A/S Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 18th were paid a $0.4119 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 18th. This represents a dividend yield of 240.0%. Novo Nordisk A/S’s payout ratio is currently 22.53%.

Institutional Trading of Novo Nordisk A/S

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Unified Investment Management purchased a new position in Novo Nordisk A/S during the second quarter worth approximately $692,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Novo Nordisk A/S by 15,919.9% during the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 1,044,658 shares of the company’s stock worth $72,523,000 after buying an additional 1,038,137 shares in the last quarter. Norden Group LLC lifted its position in Novo Nordisk A/S by 216.3% during the second quarter. Norden Group LLC now owns 96,332 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,649,000 after buying an additional 65,877 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its position in Novo Nordisk A/S by 48.7% during the second quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 103,138 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,119,000 after buying an additional 33,794 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ridgewood Investments LLC lifted its position in Novo Nordisk A/S by 205.4% during the second quarter. Ridgewood Investments LLC now owns 6,627 shares of the company’s stock worth $457,000 after buying an additional 4,457 shares in the last quarter. 11.54% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Novo Nordisk A/S

Novo Nordisk A/S, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the research and development, manufacture, and distribution of pharmaceutical products in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, North America, and internationally. It operates in two segments, Diabetes and Obesity Care, and Rare Disease.