Trexquant Investment LP Purchases 62,267 Shares of Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO)

Trexquant Investment LP boosted its holdings in Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) by 36.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 232,246 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 62,267 shares during the quarter. Trexquant Investment LP’s holdings in Novo Nordisk A/S were worth $19,978,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. GQG Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Novo Nordisk A/S by 74.7% during the 4th quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 12,994,533 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,117,790,000 after buying an additional 5,556,460 shares during the period. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P raised its position in shares of Novo Nordisk A/S by 34.2% during the fourth quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 11,571,686 shares of the company’s stock worth $995,397,000 after acquiring an additional 2,947,771 shares during the last quarter. Folketrygdfondet lifted its stake in shares of Novo Nordisk A/S by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Folketrygdfondet now owns 8,903,938 shares of the company’s stock worth $765,917,000 after acquiring an additional 40,313 shares during the period. Sustainable Growth Advisers LP boosted its holdings in 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 valued at $459,416,000 after acquiring an additional 1,021,498 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Novo Nordisk A/S during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $404,910,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 11.54% of the company’s stock.

Novo Nordisk A/S Stock Up 0.4 %

NVO stock opened at $69.58 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $82.15 and its 200 day simple moving average is $98.17. The company has a market cap of $312.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a current ratio of 0.74. Novo Nordisk A/S has a fifty-two week low of $66.88 and a fifty-two week high of $148.15.

Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.88 by $0.03. Novo Nordisk A/S had a net margin of 34.81% and a return on equity of 84.68%. On average, research analysts expect that Novo Nordisk A/S will post 3.84 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Novo Nordisk A/S Increases Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

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.