Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) Cut to “Strong Sell” at Zacks Research

Zacks Research cut shares of Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) from a hold rating to a strong sell rating in a research report released on Wednesday morning,Zacks.com reports.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. HSBC downgraded shares of Novo Nordisk A/S from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $57.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. BNP Paribas raised shares of Novo Nordisk A/S from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 13th. UBS Group cut shares of Novo Nordisk A/S from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. BNP Paribas Exane raised 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. Finally, TD Cowen reduced their target price on Novo Nordisk A/S from $105.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $81.00.

Novo Nordisk A/S Trading Up 2.6%

Shares of NVO opened at $56.8910 on Wednesday. Novo Nordisk A/S has a 1 year low of $45.05 and a 1 year high of $139.74. The company has a current ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $62.57 and a 200-day simple moving average of $69.45. The stock has a market cap of $254.02 billion, a PE ratio of 15.63, a PEG ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 0.63.

Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 return on equity of 78.64% and a net margin of 35.60%.The business had revenue of $11.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $77.51 billion. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Novo Nordisk A/S will post 3.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Novo Nordisk A/S Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, August 26th. Investors of record on Monday, August 18th will be issued a $0.4119 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 18th. This represents a dividend yield of 240.0%. Novo Nordisk A/S’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 22.53%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of NVO. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC lifted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 10,001,898 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Novo Nordisk A/S during the 1st quarter worth about $370,272,000. Nuveen Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Novo Nordisk A/S by 73.2% during the 4th quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 6,244,931 shares of the company’s stock valued at $537,189,000 after purchasing an additional 2,639,693 shares during the period. Two Sigma Investments LP bought a new position in shares of Novo Nordisk A/S in the 4th quarter valued at about $158,657,000. Finally, Amundi boosted its stake in shares of Novo Nordisk A/S by 49.1% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 4,938,507 shares of the company’s stock valued at $331,576,000 after purchasing an additional 1,627,051 shares during the last quarter. 11.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.