Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) Announces Dividend Increase – $0.79 Per Share

Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) announced a semi-annual dividend on Thursday, February 6th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a dividend of 0.7874 per share on Tuesday, April 8th. This represents a dividend yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 31st. This is an increase from Novo Nordisk A/S’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.51.

Novo Nordisk A/S has increased its dividend by an average of 25.1% annually over the last three years. Novo Nordisk A/S has a payout ratio of 47.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Novo Nordisk A/S to earn $4.66 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.20 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 47.2%.

Novo Nordisk A/S Price Performance

NVO opened at $86.39 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.74 and a quick ratio of 0.75. Novo Nordisk A/S has a 1 year low of $78.17 and a 1 year high of $148.15. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $91.86 and its 200 day simple moving average is $111.83. The firm has a market cap of $387.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.26, a PEG ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 0.45.

Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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%. As a group, analysts predict that Novo Nordisk A/S will post 3.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on NVO. StockNews.com downgraded Novo Nordisk A/S from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Sunday, December 29th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Novo Nordisk A/S to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on shares of Novo Nordisk A/S from $156.00 to $105.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Sanford C. Bernstein raised Novo Nordisk A/S from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, UBS Group raised Novo Nordisk A/S from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $145.25.

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.