GWN Securities Inc. Invests $268,000 in Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO)

GWN Securities Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 3,092 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $268,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Novo Nordisk A/S during the fourth quarter worth approximately $404,910,000. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP lifted its stake in Novo Nordisk A/S by 23.6% during the fourth quarter. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP now owns 5,340,803 shares of the company’s stock worth $459,416,000 after purchasing an additional 1,021,498 shares during the last quarter. Amundi lifted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 692,567 shares during the last quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Novo Nordisk A/S during the fourth quarter worth approximately $51,072,000. Finally, DAVENPORT & Co LLC lifted its stake in Novo Nordisk A/S by 75.1% during the fourth quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 1,052,712 shares of the company’s stock worth $90,477,000 after purchasing an additional 451,641 shares during the last quarter. 11.54% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on NVO shares. 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. 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. BNP Paribas upgraded Novo Nordisk A/S to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on Novo Nordisk A/S from $156.00 to $105.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $145.25.

Novo Nordisk A/S Price Performance

Novo Nordisk A/S stock opened at $80.26 on Tuesday. Novo Nordisk A/S has a 12 month low of $73.80 and a 12 month high of $148.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.55. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $83.85 and a 200-day simple moving average of $102.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $360.15 billion, a PE ratio of 24.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 0.42.

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%. Equities analysts predict that Novo Nordisk A/S will post 3.84 earnings per share for the current year.

Novo Nordisk A/S Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 8th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.7874 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date 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 dividend payout ratio is 47.72%.

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.