NFJ Investment Group LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO)

NFJ Investment Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) by 89.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,143 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,779 shares during the quarter. NFJ Investment Group LLC’s holdings in Novo Nordisk A/S were worth $873,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NVO. 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 raised its holdings in shares of Novo Nordisk A/S by 34.2% during the 4th quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 11,571,686 shares of the company’s stock valued at $995,397,000 after buying an additional 2,947,771 shares during the period. Folketrygdfondet lifted its position in Novo Nordisk A/S by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Folketrygdfondet now owns 8,903,938 shares of the company’s stock worth $765,917,000 after acquiring an additional 40,313 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its holdings in Novo Nordisk A/S by 1.5% in the 4th 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 period. Finally, Sustainable Growth Advisers LP grew its position in Novo Nordisk A/S by 23.6% in the fourth quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP now owns 5,340,803 shares of the company’s stock valued at $459,416,000 after acquiring an additional 1,021,498 shares in the last quarter. 11.54% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on NVO. BNP Paribas started coverage on shares of Novo Nordisk A/S in a research report on Tuesday. They set an “underperform” rating on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of Novo Nordisk A/S from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. UBS Group raised Novo Nordisk A/S from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. StockNews.com downgraded Novo Nordisk A/S from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Kepler Capital Markets upgraded Novo Nordisk A/S from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Novo Nordisk A/S has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $135.00.

Novo Nordisk A/S Stock Down 7.8 %

Shares of Novo Nordisk A/S stock opened at $57.99 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $76.03 and a 200 day moving average price of $92.13. Novo Nordisk A/S has a fifty-two week low of $57.28 and a fifty-two week high of $148.15. The firm has a market cap of $260.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.63, a P/E/G ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 0.61.

Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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, sell-side analysts forecast that Novo Nordisk A/S will post 3.84 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Novo Nordisk A/S Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 8th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st were issued a $0.7874 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 31st. This is a positive change from Novo Nordisk A/S’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.51. This represents a dividend yield of 1.2%. Novo Nordisk A/S’s payout ratio is 49.54%.

Novo Nordisk A/S Company Profile

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.