S.A. Mason LLC Sells 300 Shares of Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO)

S.A. Mason LLC reduced its position in shares of Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) by 4.0% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 7,200 shares of the company’s stock after selling 300 shares during the quarter. S.A. Mason LLC’s holdings in Novo Nordisk A/S were worth $745,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Jennison Associates LLC increased its holdings in shares of Novo Nordisk A/S by 100.3% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 23,419,405 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,129,761,000 after acquiring an additional 11,727,507 shares during the last quarter. Polen Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Novo Nordisk A/S in the 3rd quarter valued at about $718,995,000. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Novo Nordisk A/S by 122.7% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 12,077,501 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,098,328,000 after acquiring an additional 6,654,614 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley increased its stake in shares of Novo Nordisk A/S by 96.5% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,215,098 shares of the company’s stock worth $838,021,000 after purchasing an additional 4,526,199 shares during the period. Finally, Loomis Sayles & Co. L P boosted its stake in Novo Nordisk A/S by 91.7% in the 3rd quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 9,097,808 shares of the company’s stock valued at $827,354,000 after purchasing an additional 4,350,862 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 11.54% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on NVO shares. UBS Group initiated coverage on Novo Nordisk A/S in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. They set a “neutral” rating for the company. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Novo Nordisk A/S from $105.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, December 4th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 target price on shares of Novo Nordisk A/S in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on Novo Nordisk A/S in a research note on Tuesday, January 23rd. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $120.00 price target for the company. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $126.25.

Novo Nordisk A/S Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:NVO opened at $128.05 on Thursday. Novo Nordisk A/S has a 1 year low of $75.56 and a 1 year high of $138.28. The stock has a market capitalization of $574.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.64. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $121.34 and its 200 day simple moving average is $104.22.

Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 31st. The company reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.66 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $9.51 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.14 billion. Novo Nordisk A/S had a return on equity of 90.36% and a net margin of 36.03%. As a group, research analysts predict that Novo Nordisk A/S will post 3.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Novo Nordisk A/S Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a Semi-Annual dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 2nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 25th will be issued a $0.664 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 22nd. This represents a dividend yield of 0.9%. This is a boost from Novo Nordisk A/S’s previous Semi-Annual dividend of $0.22. Novo Nordisk A/S’s dividend payout ratio is 49.17%.

Novo Nordisk A/S 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.