AstraZeneca (AZN) Competitors

AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN) and Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, media sentiment, community ranking, earnings, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation and risk.

Do analysts recommend AZN or NVO?

AstraZeneca presently has a consensus price target of $88.00, suggesting a potential upside of 24.98%. Novo Nordisk A/S has a consensus price target of $135.00, suggesting a potential upside of 100.71%. Given Novo Nordisk A/S's higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Novo Nordisk A/S is more favorable than AstraZeneca.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
AstraZeneca	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.10
Novo Nordisk A/S	2 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.38

Which has more risk and volatility, AZN or NVO?

AstraZeneca has a beta of 0.4, suggesting that its stock price is 60% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Novo Nordisk A/S has a beta of 0.65, suggesting that its stock price is 35% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do insiders and institutionals believe in AZN or NVO?

20.4% of AstraZeneca shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 11.5% of Novo Nordisk A/S shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.1% of Novo Nordisk A/S shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media refer more to AZN or NVO?

In the previous week, Novo Nordisk A/S had 16 more articles in the media than AstraZeneca. MarketBeat recorded 47 mentions for Novo Nordisk A/S and 31 mentions for AstraZeneca. AstraZeneca's average media sentiment score of 1.29 beat Novo Nordisk A/S's score of 0.70 indicating that AstraZeneca is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
AstraZeneca	21 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Novo Nordisk A/S	25 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	10 Neutral mention(s)	6 Negative mention(s)	2 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has better valuation and earnings, AZN or NVO?

Novo Nordisk A/S has higher revenue and earnings than AstraZeneca. Novo Nordisk A/S is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than AstraZeneca, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
AstraZeneca	$54.98B	3.97	$7.04B	$2.49	28.28
Novo Nordisk A/S	$303.14B	1.00	$14.64B	$3.38	19.90

Is AZN or NVO more profitable?

Novo Nordisk A/S has a net margin of 34.81% compared to AstraZeneca's net margin of 13.01%. Novo Nordisk A/S's return on equity of 84.68% beat AstraZeneca's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
AstraZeneca	13.01%	32.23%	12.31%
Novo Nordisk A/S	34.81%	84.68%	26.29%

Does the MarketBeat Community favor AZN or NVO?

Novo Nordisk A/S received 371 more outperform votes than AstraZeneca when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 61.74% of users gave Novo Nordisk A/S an outperform vote while only 60.00% of users gave AstraZeneca an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
AstraZeneca	Outperform Votes 63 60.00%	Underperform Votes 42 40.00%
Novo Nordisk A/S	Outperform Votes 434 61.74%	Underperform Votes 269 38.26%

Is AZN or NVO a better dividend stock?

AstraZeneca pays an annual dividend of $2.06 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. Novo Nordisk A/S pays an annual dividend of $1.63 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. AstraZeneca pays out 82.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Novo Nordisk A/S pays out 48.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Summary

Novo Nordisk A/S beats AstraZeneca on 13 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.