Novo Nordisk A/S (NVO) Competitors

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

Is AZN or NVO a better dividend stock?

AstraZeneca pays an annual dividend of $1.93 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Novo Nordisk A/S pays an annual dividend of $1.33 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. AstraZeneca pays out 94.6% 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 45.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Which has more risk and volatility, AZN or NVO?

AstraZeneca has a beta of 0.45, indicating that its share price is 55% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Novo Nordisk A/S has a beta of 0.41, indicating that its share price is 59% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts recommend AZN or NVO?

AstraZeneca currently has a consensus price target of $88.00, suggesting a potential upside of 12.63%. Novo Nordisk A/S has a consensus price target of $145.67, suggesting a potential upside of 14.95%. Given AstraZeneca's higher possible upside, analysts clearly 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)	3 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.90
Novo Nordisk A/S	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	6 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.75

Which has better earnings and valuation, AZN or NVO?

Novo Nordisk A/S has lower revenue, but higher earnings than AstraZeneca. AstraZeneca is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Novo Nordisk A/S, 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	$45.81B	5.29	$5.96B	$2.04	38.30
Novo Nordisk A/S	$33.71B	16.87	$12.15B	$2.90	43.70

Do institutionals & insiders have more ownership in AZN or NVO?

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

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer AZN or NVO?

Novo Nordisk A/S received 350 more outperform votes than AstraZeneca when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 60.90% of users gave Novo Nordisk A/S an outperform vote while only 59.79% of users gave AstraZeneca an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
AstraZeneca	Outperform Votes 58 59.79%	Underperform Votes 39 40.21%
Novo Nordisk A/S	Outperform Votes 408 60.90%	Underperform Votes 262 39.10%

Is AZN or NVO more profitable?

Novo Nordisk A/S has a net margin of 36.56% compared to Novo Nordisk A/S's net margin of 13.11%. AstraZeneca's return on equity of 91.70% beat Novo Nordisk A/S's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
AstraZeneca	13.11%	29.66%	11.28%
Novo Nordisk A/S	36.56%	91.70%	29.86%

Does the media refer more to AZN or NVO?

In the previous week, AstraZeneca had 14 more articles in the media than Novo Nordisk A/S. MarketBeat recorded 40 mentions for AstraZeneca and 26 mentions for Novo Nordisk A/S. Novo Nordisk A/S's average media sentiment score of 0.70 beat AstraZeneca's score of 0.55 indicating that AstraZeneca is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
AstraZeneca	17 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	11 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Novo Nordisk A/S	12 Very Positive mention(s)	5 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	5 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

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