Eastern Bank Buys New Shares in Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO)

Eastern Bank bought a new stake in Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 89,930 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,708,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of NVO. GQG Partners LLC grew its holdings in Novo Nordisk A/S by 654.6% in the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 3,633,064 shares of the company’s stock valued at $466,485,000 after purchasing an additional 3,151,584 shares during the period. DSM Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in Novo Nordisk A/S by 257,816.0% during the second quarter. DSM Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,593,921 shares of the company’s stock worth $227,516,000 after buying an additional 1,593,303 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Novo Nordisk A/S by 1,300.8% during the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 1,244,128 shares of the company’s stock worth $159,703,000 after buying an additional 1,155,313 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in Novo Nordisk A/S by 10.6% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,589,222 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,102,857,000 after buying an additional 823,036 shares during the period. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP grew its stake in Novo Nordisk A/S by 34,472.1% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 691,441 shares of the company’s stock worth $98,696,000 after buying an additional 689,441 shares during the period. 11.54% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 price objective on shares of Novo Nordisk A/S in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Novo Nordisk A/S from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on shares of Novo Nordisk A/S from $160.00 to $156.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Novo Nordisk A/S currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $144.50.

Novo Nordisk A/S Stock Down 0.6 %

NVO traded down $0.73 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $116.60. The company had a trading volume of 3,167,330 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,283,290. The company has a market cap of $523.25 billion, a PE ratio of 40.02, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.42. The business has a 50-day moving average of $128.23 and a 200-day moving average of $131.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.75. Novo Nordisk A/S has a 1-year low of $92.94 and a 1-year high of $148.15.

Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The company reported $0.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.71 by ($0.06). The company had revenue of $9.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.91 billion. Novo Nordisk A/S had a net margin of 34.86% and a return on equity of 87.43%. As a group, analysts forecast that Novo Nordisk A/S will post 3.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Novo Nordisk A/S Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 16th were issued a dividend of $0.5126 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 16th. This represents a dividend yield of 0.7%. Novo Nordisk A/S’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.83%.

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.