Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) Upgraded at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note released on Thursday.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on NVO. BNP Paribas raised Novo Nordisk A/S to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on Novo Nordisk A/S from $156.00 to $105.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus cut Novo Nordisk A/S from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Novo Nordisk A/S from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded Novo Nordisk A/S from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $145.25.

Novo Nordisk A/S Stock Performance

Novo Nordisk A/S stock opened at $77.22 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a current ratio of 0.74. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $83.95 and a two-hundred day moving average of $103.01. The company has a market capitalization of $346.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.47, a PEG ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 0.42. Novo Nordisk A/S has a fifty-two week low of $73.80 and a fifty-two week high of $148.15.

Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.88 by $0.03. Novo Nordisk A/S had a return on equity of 84.68% and a net margin of 34.81%. On average, analysts anticipate that Novo Nordisk A/S will post 3.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Novo Nordisk A/S Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.7874 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. This is a boost from Novo Nordisk A/S’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.51. Novo Nordisk A/S’s payout ratio is currently 47.72%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in shares of Novo Nordisk A/S by 8.1% during the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 15,492,384 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,332,655,000 after purchasing an additional 1,165,955 shares in the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Novo Nordisk A/S by 74.7% during the fourth quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 12,994,533 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,117,790,000 after purchasing an additional 5,556,460 shares in the last quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P lifted its stake in shares of Novo Nordisk A/S by 34.2% during the fourth quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 11,571,686 shares of the company’s stock worth $995,397,000 after purchasing an additional 2,947,771 shares in the last quarter. Folketrygdfondet lifted its stake in shares of Novo Nordisk A/S by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Folketrygdfondet now owns 8,903,938 shares of the company’s stock worth $765,917,000 after purchasing an additional 40,313 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its position in shares of Novo Nordisk A/S by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 8,312,996 shares of the company’s stock worth $715,084,000 after acquiring an additional 123,681 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 11.54% of the company’s stock.

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.