Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) Shares Down 1.1% After Analyst Downgrade

Key Points

• Novo Nordisk A/S's stock fell 1.1% following a downgrade from TD Cowen, which lowered its price target from $105 to $70 while maintaining a buy rating.
• The company reported a quarterly EPS of $0.97, surpassing analysts' expectations of $0.93, and generated revenue of $11.69 billion compared to estimates of $77.51 billion.
• Recent changes in institutional holdings indicate increased investments, with several hedge funds significantly increasing their positions in Novo Nordisk A/S shares.

Shares of Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO - Get Free Report) traded down 1.1% on Wednesday after Zacks Research downgraded the stock from a hold rating to a strong sell rating. The company traded as low as $53.84 and last traded at $54.19. 5,644,064 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 52% from the average session volume of 11,653,156 shares. The stock had previously closed at $54.78.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on NVO. Hsbc Global Res cut shares of Novo Nordisk A/S from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Novo Nordisk A/S from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, August 2nd. BNP Paribas Exane upgraded shares of Novo Nordisk A/S from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $54.00 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 13th. TD Cowen reduced their target price on shares of 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. Finally, UBS Group cut shares of Novo Nordisk A/S from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 5th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Novo Nordisk A/S currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $81.00.

Institutional Trading of Novo Nordisk A/S

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in NVO. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC boosted its position in shares of Novo Nordisk A/S by 301,443.6% during the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 10,005,216 shares of the company's stock valued at $690,560,000 after buying an additional 10,001,898 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Novo Nordisk A/S in the first quarter worth about $370,272,000. Nuveen Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Novo Nordisk A/S by 73.2% in the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 6,244,931 shares of the company's stock worth $537,189,000 after purchasing an additional 2,639,693 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP purchased a new position in Novo Nordisk A/S in the fourth quarter worth about $158,657,000. Finally, Amundi boosted its position in Novo Nordisk A/S by 49.1% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 4,938,507 shares of the company's stock worth $331,576,000 after purchasing an additional 1,627,051 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 11.54% of the company's stock.

Novo Nordisk A/S Price 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 market capitalization of $254.02 billion, a PE ratio of 15.63, a PEG ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.63. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $62.57 and a 200-day simple moving average of $69.33.

Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The company reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.93 by $0.04. Novo Nordisk A/S had a return on equity of 78.64% and a net margin of 35.60%.The firm had revenue of $11.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $77.51 billion. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Novo Nordisk A/S will post 3.84 earnings per share for the current year.

Novo Nordisk A/S Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, August 26th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 18th will be given a dividend of $0.4119 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 240.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 18th. Novo Nordisk A/S's payout ratio is presently 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.