Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. Trims Stake in Novo Nordisk A/S $NVO

Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. trimmed its stake in Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) by 99.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,780 shares of the company’s stock after selling 340,609 shares during the period. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd.’s holdings in Novo Nordisk A/S were worth $192,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Jennison Associates LLC increased its stake in shares of Novo Nordisk A/S by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 18,885,343 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,303,466,000 after purchasing an additional 63,341 shares in the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC increased its stake in shares of Novo Nordisk A/S by 301,443.6% in the 2nd quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 10,005,216 shares of the company’s stock worth $690,560,000 after purchasing an additional 10,001,898 shares in the last quarter. Folketrygdfondet increased its stake in Novo Nordisk A/S by 6.9% in the 1st quarter. Folketrygdfondet now owns 9,521,912 shares of the company’s stock worth $661,202,000 after buying an additional 617,974 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in Novo Nordisk A/S by 11.3% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,692,554 shares of the company’s stock worth $395,291,000 after buying an additional 576,900 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sustainable Growth Advisers LP increased its stake in Novo Nordisk A/S by 3.8% in the 1st quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP now owns 5,543,246 shares of the company’s stock worth $384,923,000 after buying an additional 202,443 shares in the last quarter. 11.54% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on NVO. BNP Paribas upgraded Novo Nordisk A/S from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. HSBC set a $70.00 price target on Novo Nordisk A/S in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. Dbs Bank upgraded Novo Nordisk A/S from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 22nd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Novo Nordisk A/S in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Finally, Berenberg Bank upgraded Novo Nordisk A/S from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 17th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $76.00.

Novo Nordisk A/S Stock Down 1.3%

NVO opened at $51.36 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $56.43 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $62.14. Novo Nordisk A/S has a 52 week low of $45.05 and a 52 week high of $113.76. The company has a market capitalization of $229.30 billion, a PE ratio of 14.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.68. The company has a quick ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52.

Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The company reported $0.97 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.93 by $0.04. Novo Nordisk A/S had a net margin of 35.60% and a return on equity of 78.64%. The business had revenue of $11.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $77.51 billion. Analysts forecast that Novo Nordisk A/S will post 3.84 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Novo Nordisk A/S Cuts Dividend

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

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.