Blair William & Co. IL Trims Position in Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO)

Blair William & Co. IL reduced its holdings in Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) by 19.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 63,973 shares of the company’s stock after selling 15,720 shares during the period. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in Novo Nordisk A/S were worth $5,503,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in NVO. GQG Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Novo Nordisk A/S by 74.7% in the fourth quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 12,994,533 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,117,790,000 after purchasing an additional 5,556,460 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Novo Nordisk A/S in the 4th quarter valued at about $404,910,000. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P lifted its holdings in shares of Novo Nordisk A/S by 34.2% in 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. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP boosted its stake in shares of 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 worth $459,416,000 after buying an additional 1,021,498 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi grew its holdings in Novo Nordisk A/S by 26.4% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 3,311,456 shares of the company’s stock worth $283,615,000 after acquiring an additional 692,567 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 11.54% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on NVO. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Novo Nordisk A/S from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Kepler Capital Markets upgraded shares of Novo Nordisk A/S from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Novo Nordisk A/S from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. BNP Paribas raised shares of Novo Nordisk A/S to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered Novo Nordisk A/S from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $145.25.

Novo Nordisk A/S Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE NVO opened at $69.36 on Monday. Novo Nordisk A/S has a 52-week low of $67.75 and a 52-week high of $148.15. 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 company’s 50-day simple moving average is $82.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $98.64. The firm has a market cap of $311.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 0.42.

Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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%. Equities analysts predict that Novo Nordisk A/S will post 3.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Novo Nordisk A/S Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.7874 per share. This represents a yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. This is a boost from Novo Nordisk A/S’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.51. Novo Nordisk A/S’s payout ratio is 47.72%.

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.