Stegent Equity Advisors Inc. Invests $330,000 in Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO)

Stegent Equity Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 3,193 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $330,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in NVO. Westside Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Novo Nordisk A/S by 83.3% in the third quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,428 shares of the company’s stock worth $130,000 after buying an additional 649 shares during the last quarter. Kranot Hishtalmut Le Morim Tichoniim Havera Menahelet LTD purchased a new position in Novo Nordisk A/S during the third quarter worth approximately $2,408,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Novo Nordisk A/S by 182.2% during the third quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 1,494,214 shares of the company’s stock worth $135,883,000 after purchasing an additional 964,640 shares in the last quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co boosted its position in Novo Nordisk A/S by 111.6% during the third quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 6,004 shares of the company’s stock worth $546,000 after purchasing an additional 3,166 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ieq Capital LLC boosted its position in Novo Nordisk A/S by 136.6% during the third quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 27,474 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,498,000 after purchasing an additional 15,860 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 11.54% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on NVO shares. BMO Capital Markets assumed coverage on Novo Nordisk A/S in a report on Friday, April 12th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $163.00 price target for the company. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on Novo Nordisk A/S in a research note on Tuesday, January 23rd. They set an “overweight” rating and a $120.00 target price for the company. UBS Group assumed coverage on Novo Nordisk A/S in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. They set a “neutral” rating for the company. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 target price on shares of Novo Nordisk A/S in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Novo Nordisk A/S presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $133.60.

Novo Nordisk A/S Stock Up 1.0 %

NYSE:NVO traded up $1.30 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $128.18. The company had a trading volume of 7,217,297 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,787,730. The firm has a market capitalization of $575.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.47, a PEG ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $126.92 and its 200-day simple moving average is $112.40. Novo Nordisk A/S has a 12-month low of $75.56 and a 12-month high of $138.28.

Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 31st. The company reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by $0.05. Novo Nordisk A/S had a return on equity of 90.36% and a net margin of 36.03%. The company had revenue of $9.51 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.14 billion. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Novo Nordisk A/S will post 3.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Novo Nordisk A/S Increases Dividend

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

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.