Guardian Partners Inc. Buys Shares of 127,391 Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO)

Guardian Partners Inc. bought a new stake in Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 127,391 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,910,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Harbor Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Novo Nordisk A/S in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $241,000. Fortis Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Novo Nordisk A/S by 31.7% in the fourth quarter. Fortis Capital Management LLC now owns 45,888 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,947,000 after acquiring an additional 11,039 shares during the period. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Novo Nordisk A/S by 9.0% in the fourth quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC now owns 4,598 shares of the company’s stock valued at $396,000 after acquiring an additional 380 shares during the period. Geo Capital Gestora de Recursos Ltd boosted its stake in Novo Nordisk A/S by 157.9% in the fourth quarter. Geo Capital Gestora de Recursos Ltd now owns 71,341 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,137,000 after acquiring an additional 43,678 shares during the period. Finally, Plancorp LLC boosted its stake in Novo Nordisk A/S by 29.0% in the fourth quarter. Plancorp LLC now owns 2,534 shares of the company’s stock valued at $218,000 after acquiring an additional 569 shares during the period. 11.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on NVO shares. StockNews.com downgraded Novo Nordisk A/S from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded Novo Nordisk A/S from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. 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 report on Monday, December 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded Novo Nordisk A/S from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, UBS Group upgraded Novo Nordisk A/S from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Novo Nordisk A/S presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $145.25.

Novo Nordisk A/S Stock Performance

NVO opened at $76.88 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $344.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.37, 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 current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.55. Novo Nordisk A/S has a 1-year low of $73.80 and a 1-year high of $148.15. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $83.34 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $100.98.

Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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%. Research analysts predict that Novo Nordisk A/S will post 3.84 EPS 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. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a $0.7874 dividend. This represents a yield of 1.2%. This is an increase from Novo Nordisk A/S’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.51. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st. 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.