Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) Lowered to Buy Rating by StockNews.com

Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) was downgraded by stock analysts at StockNews.com from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued on Friday.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Novo Nordisk A/S from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on Novo Nordisk A/S from $156.00 to $105.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus cut Novo Nordisk A/S from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. UBS Group upgraded Novo Nordisk A/S from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley started coverage on Novo Nordisk A/S in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. They set an “equal weight” rating for the company. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $145.25.

Novo Nordisk A/S Trading Down 2.4 %

Shares of NVO traded down $1.91 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $76.88. 5,876,147 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,412,643. Novo Nordisk A/S has a 52-week low of $73.80 and a 52-week high of $148.15. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $83.34 and a 200 day simple moving average of $101.22. The firm has a market cap of $344.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.37, a P/E/G ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a current ratio of 0.74.

Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, topping 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, research analysts anticipate that Novo Nordisk A/S will post 3.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Novo Nordisk A/S

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in NVO. Commerce Bank increased its position in Novo Nordisk A/S by 16.0% in the 3rd quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 32,534 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,874,000 after acquiring an additional 4,489 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its position in Novo Nordisk A/S by 55.5% in the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 7,238 shares of the company’s stock valued at $862,000 after acquiring an additional 2,582 shares during the period. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI increased its position in Novo Nordisk A/S by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 14,301 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,703,000 after acquiring an additional 263 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC increased its position in Novo Nordisk A/S by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 1,362,782 shares of the company’s stock valued at $162,266,000 after acquiring an additional 47,496 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in Novo Nordisk A/S by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 79,660 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,485,000 after acquiring an additional 2,166 shares during the period. 11.54% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.