Nordisk

On October 07, 2025, Carolina Wealth Advisors, LLC disclosed a buy of Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE: NVO) shares, an estimated $6.01 million trade based on the average price for Q3 2025.

What happened

According to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing dated October 07, 2025, Carolina Wealth Advisors, LLC increased its stake in Novo Nordisk, adding 102,629 shares during the third quarter. The estimated trade size was $6.01 million, calculated using the average closing price for the period from July 1 through September 30, 2025. The updated holding stands at 116,973 shares.

What else to know

This transaction was a buy, raising Novo Nordisk A/S to 2.8% of the fund’s 13F reportable AUM as of Q3 2025.

Top holdings after the filing:

• NYSEMKT:SCHQ: $18.93 million (8.2% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025.
• NYSEMKT:BKAG: $13.22 million (5.7% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025.
• NYSEMKT:SCHP: $13.10 million (5.6589% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025.
• NYSE:DELL: $10.14 million (4.3781% of AUM) as of September 30, 2025.
• NYSEMKT:SPHY: $10.09 million (4.3568% of AUM) as of Q3 2025.

As of October 6, 2025, Novo Nordisk A/S shares were priced at $59.65. This price reflects an underperformance of 65.4 percentage points relative to the S&P 500 over the past year.

Company Overview

Company Snapshot

Novo Nordisk:

• Offers pharmaceutical products focused on diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular, rare blood disorders, and hormone replacement therapies, as well as medical devices such as insulin pens and smart diabetes solutions.
• Generates revenue primarily through the development, manufacturing, and global distribution of branded prescription medicines and medical devices, with a strong focus on chronic disease management.
• Serves healthcare providers, hospitals, and patients in Europe, North America, Asia, and other international markets, targeting individuals with diabetes, obesity, and rare diseases.

Novo Nordisk is a global healthcare leader specializing in diabetes and obesity care, with a robust presence in rare disease therapeutics. The company leverages extensive research and development capabilities to deliver innovative pharmaceutical products and smart medical devices. Its scale, diversified product portfolio, and global reach provide a strong competitive position in chronic disease management.

Foolish take

Carolina Wealth Advisors’ $6 million addition to its Novo Nordisk holdings is noteworthy as it grows the holding from a 0.5% position to a 2.8% stake in the firm’s overall portfolio.

This purchase makes the Ozempic and Wegovy maker the 11th-largest holding overall in the firm’s portfolio, and its sixth-largest stock holding.

With five bond and treasury ETFs making up 28% of Carolina Wealth’s holdings, this ballooning Novo Nordisk stake stands out.

Novo Nordisk’s shares have dropped nearly 60% from their highs in the last two years, so this could be a well-timed acquisition.

After receiving immense fanfare for its obesity and diabetic drug breakthroughs, the company’s price-earnings (P/E) ratio soared to 50 as the stock hit new all-time highs in 2024.

However, with revolutionary breakthroughs like these — paired with the subsequent fanfare — comes competition. Now the market has Novo Nordisk trading at a much more reasonable 19 times earnings as it tries to gauge just how much of its leading market share the company will be able to hold on to.

Ultimately, if investors believe in Novo Nordisk’s ability to maintain its leadership advantage and build upon its pipeline of promising treatments, today’s valuation could be a bargain — and Carolina Wealth is piling in.

Glossary

13F AUM: Assets under management reported in quarterly SEC Form 13F filings, covering U.S. equity holdings by institutional investors.
Reportable AUM: The portion of a fund’s assets under management that must be disclosed in regulatory filings, such as Form 13F.
Quarter (Q3 2025): The third three-month period of the 2025 calendar year, covering July 1 to September 30.
Stake: The ownership interest or position held in a company, typically measured by the number of shares owned.
Top holdings: The largest investments in a fund’s portfolio, usually ranked by market value or percentage of total assets.
Filing: An official document submitted to a regulatory authority, such as the SEC, disclosing financial or investment information.
Underperformance: When an investment’s returns are lower than a benchmark or comparable index over a specific period.
Chronic disease management: Ongoing medical care and treatment strategies for long-term health conditions, such as diabetes or obesity.
Pharmaceutical products: Medications developed and manufactured for diagnosis, treatment, or prevention of diseases.
Medical devices: Instruments or apparatuses used in the diagnosis, treatment, or management of medical conditions.
Smart diabetes solutions: Technology-enabled tools, such as connected insulin pens, designed to help manage diabetes more effectively.
TTM: The 12-month period ending with the most recent quarterly report.

Novo Nordisk (NVO 2.83%) — the original Ozempic stock — got a boost from private German bank Berenberg this morning, which upgraded the stock to buy. In fact, Berenberg says Novo is its “preferred obesity play,” as The Fly reports.

Novo stock is up 2.9% through 10:30 a.m. ET.

Image source: Getty Images.

What Berenberg said about Novo Nordisk

Novo Nordisk created the GLP-1 weight loss market — then fumbled it, allowing first Hims & Hers to horn in on the business when Novo was unable to produce enough semaglutide, then giving Eli Lilly time to develop competing products (that by some measures work better) in the form of Mounjaro and Zepbound.

Still, Berenberg argues, since Novo’s fumbles, market expectations for Novo have reset, and the stock price has gotten considerably cheaper. With Novo Nordisk shares now selling for less than 15 times earnings, paying a 3% dividend yield, and expected to grow only 8% annually over the next five years, investor expectations are a whole lot more realistic today than they were a year ago.

Is Novo Nordisk stock a buy?

Now, there’s still some debate about whether Novo Nordisk stock is a buy, based on its growth outlook, potential catalysts, and valuation, admits the analyst. A P/E of 15 with a 3% dividend and an 8% growth rate still values Novo Nordisk at a total return ratio of about 1.3 — which is more expensive than the value investor’s target of a 1.

In other words, there’s still room for Novo Nordisk to fall.

On the other hand, if the company can find its footing, perhaps by marketing Ozempic and Wegovy in upsized dosages and at attractive prices, Novo might grow faster than expected. And with fast enough growth, Novo Nordisk could quickly turn from a sell into a buy.

Novo Nordisk’s outgoing CEO, Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen, has warned that layoffs at the Danish pharmaceutical giant could be unavoidable as competition heats up against its blockbuster obesity drug Wegovy amid rising pressure from rival Eli Lilly.

Novo Nordisk – which became Europe’s most valuable company, worth $650bn, last year on booming sales of Wegovy – is facing a pivotal moment as the medicine loses market share and sees sales growth slow, especially in the United States.

It has warned of far slower growth this year, in part due to compounders who have been allowed to make copycat drugs based on the same ingredients as Wegovy due to shortages. Novo Nordisk, which according to its website has 77,000 employees, cut its full-year sales and profit forecasts last week, wiping $95bn off its market value since.

The slide is a vast and abrupt turnaround for the firm that has been one of the world’s hottest investment stories, which led to a rapid expansion of manufacturing and sales capacity. Now the company is eyeing potential cost-cutting measures.

Layoffs loom

“We probably won’t be able to avoid layoffs,” Jorgensen told Danish broadcaster DR. “When you have to adjust a company, there are some areas where you have to have fewer people, some [areas] where you have to be smaller.”

He added, though, that any decision on layoffs would be in the hands of the incoming CEO, company veteran Maziar Mike Doustdar, who takes over on Thursday.

On a media call, Jorgensen said the market for copycat versions of Wegovy’s class of drugs – known as GLP-1 receptor agonists – was of “equal size to our business” and compounded versions of Wegovy were sold at a “much lower price point”.

In May, Novo Nordisk said it expected many of the roughly one million US patients using compounded GLP-1 drugs to switch to branded treatments after a US Food and Drug Administration ban on compounded copies of Wegovy took effect on May 22, and it expected compounding to wind down in the third quarter.

However, finance chief Karsten Munk Knudsen said on Wednesday that more than one million US patients were still using compounded GLP-1s and that the company’s lowered outlook has “not assumed a reduction in compounding” this year.

“The obesity market is volatile,” Knudsen told analysts when asked under what circumstances the company could see negative growth in the last six months of the year. The low end of the firm’s new full-year guidance range would be for “unforeseen events”, such as stronger pricing pressure in the US than forecast, he said.

The lower end of the range would imply sales around 150 billion Danish krone ($23bn) in the second half of 2025, compared with 157 billion krone ($24.5bn) in the same period last year.

Knudsen reiterated that the company was pursuing multiple strategies, including lawsuits against compounding pharmacies, to halt unlawful mass compounding.

Jorgensen said the company was encouraged by the latest US prescription data for Wegovy. While the drug was overtaken earlier this year by rival Eli Lilly’s Zepbound in terms of US prescriptions, that lead has narrowed in the past month.

Second-quarter sales of Wegovy rose by 36 percent in the US and more than quadrupled in markets outside the US compared to a year ago, Novo Nordisk said.

While Wegovy’s US pricing held steady in the quarter, the company expected deeper erosion in the key US market in the second half, due to a greater portion of sales expected from the direct-to-consumer or cash-pay channel, as well as higher rebates and discounts to insurers, Knudsen said.

He said Novo Nordisk was expanding its US direct-to-consumer platform, NovoCare, launched in March, and may need to pursue similar “cash sales” directly to patients, outside of insurance channels, in some markets outside the US.

Cost cuts

Novo Nordisk reiterated its full-year earnings expectations on Wednesday after last week’s profit warning.

Jorgensen said the company was acting to “ensure efficiencies in our cost base” as it announced it would terminate eight research and development projects.

“There seems to be a larger R&D clean-out than usual, but we do not know if this reflects a strategic re-assessment or just a coincidence,” Jefferies analysts said in a note.

Investors have questioned whether the company can stay competitive in the booming weight-loss drug market. Several equity analysts have cut their price targets and recommendations on the stock since last week.

Shares in Novo Nordisk plunged 30 percent last week – their worst weekly performance in over two decades. The stock has continued to tumble since the market opened in New York. As of 12pm local time (16:00 GMT), the pharmaceutical giant was down by more than 3.3 percent.

Published on
29/07/2025 – 16:24 GMT+2

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Novo Nordisk shares fell by over 20% on Tuesday after the firm slashed its full-year guidance, blaming weaker US sales expectations for its obesity drug Wegovy and Ozempic diabetes treatment.

In the wake of the sell-off, the pharma giant said long-time employee Maziar Mike Doustdar would take over as president and CEO, replacing Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen — who unexpectedly stepped down in May.

Doustdar, the first non-Dane to lead the company, will take over on 7 August.

Novo cut its financial guidance for the year on Tuesday, expecting yearly sales to grow by 8% to 14%, compared to a previous forecast of up to 21%. Operating profit is now expected to grow 10% to 16%, compared to a previously predicted upper limit of 24%.

Depressed sales expectations for Wegovy and Ozempic are linked to rival products from drug maker Eli Lilly, as well as other, cheaper dupes of the pharmaceuticals.

“For Wegovy in the US, the sales outlook reflects the persistent use of compounded (drugs), slower-than-expected market expansion and competition,” said Novo.

The firm’s sales rose 18% in constant currencies in the first six months of the year, while operating profit was up 29%.

In 2024, Wegovy’s popularity helped Novo to become Europe’s most valuable listed company, but its value has since plummeted. 

The company previously downgraded its outlook in May due to intensifying competition in the weight-loss drug markets.

Novo is due to report its full second-quarter sales on 6 August.

May 16 (UPI) — Novo Nordisk announced Friday that CEO Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen is stepping down per mutual agreement with the company.

The company said Friday that Jorgensen will continue as CEO for an unspecified period to smooth the leadership transition.

“A search for Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen’s successor is ongoing, and an announcement will be made in due course. In connection with the change, Lars Rebien Sorensen, chair of the Novo Nordisk Foundation, will join the Novo Nordisk Board, initially as an observer,” Novo Nordisk said in statement,

The company said the changes are being made “in light of the recent market challenges Novo Nordisk has been facing, and the development of the company’s share price since mid-2024.”

Company share prices have declined amid the market challenges and an accelerated CEO succession was decided after “a dialogue” between the Novo Nordisk Foundation Board and the Novo Nordisk Board.

“Novo Nordisk’s strategy remains unchanged, and the Board is confident in the company’s current business plans and its ability to execute on the plans,” Helge Lund, chair of the Novo Nordisk Board, said in a statement.

Rebien joins the Novo Nordisk Board as the result of an agreement between that board and the Novo Nordisk Foundation Board. He will be nominated as a board member in 2026.

“Serving as Novo Nordisk’s CEO for the past eight years has been a privilege and an experience that I will always cherish. I am proud of the results I have helped create together with my leadership team, the Board, and the thousands of employees who work every day to drive change to defeat serious chronic diseases,” Jorgensen said in a statement.

The company said Friday that Jorgenson led Novo Nordisk through “a significant growth journey and transformation.” It said in his eight-year tenure as CEO the company’s profits, share price and sales nearly tripled.

Novo Nordisk is a Danish pharmaceutical company that makes popular weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy.

Days earlier, Novo Nordisk cut its sales and profit forecast for first time since the launch of Wegovy four years ago.

Wegovy-maker Novo Nordisk has pushed out CEO Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen over concerns the company is losing its first-mover advantage in the highly competitive obesity drug market.

Novo Nordisk announced the decision on Friday.

Days earlier, Novo Nordisk cut its sales and profit forecast for the first time since the launch of Wegovy four years ago, though Jorgensen had predicted a return to growth in its biggest market in the second half of this year.

Novo’s chairman, Helge Lund, tried to reassure analysts and investors on a call that the company’s strategy was intact and the plan for executing it had not changed.

He told the Reuters news agency that discussions to replace Jorgensen had occurred over the past few weeks. Novo said earlier that Jorgensen will remain in his role until a successor is found.

Under Jorgensen’s leadership, Novo Nordisk became a world leader in the weight-loss drug market, with skyrocketing sales of its Wegovy and Ozempic treatments.

Analysts and investors were unconvinced of the need to replace him.

“He was leading the company for eight years and was, in my opinion, extremely successful,” Lukas Leu, a portfolio manager at Bellevue Asset Management, told Reuters.

Danske Bank analyst Carsten Lonborg Madsen was similarly caught off guard.

“The way we know Novo Nordisk is that normally you have patience when you’re on the right track, and then you let things move in the right direction once you have the strategy right,” he said.

“It just feels like there’s something that has gone pretty wrong here,” he said on the call.

Novo’s shares have plunged since hitting a record high in June last year as competition, particularly from US rival Eli Lilly, makes inroads into its market share and as its pipeline of new drugs has failed to impress investors.

“The changes are made in light of the recent market challenges Novo Nordisk has been facing, and the development of the company’s share price since mid-2024,” Novo said in its statement.

Shares down

Jorgensen, at 58, has been CEO since 2017. He said in an interview with Danish broadcaster TV2 that he did not see the decision coming, and was only informed very recently.

Booming sales of Wegovy helped make Novo the most valuable listed company in Europe, worth $615bn at its peak in June last year, but its market value has halved to about $310bn.

Novo Nordisk’s share price fell on the news, trading 0.8 percent lower by 14:01 GMT after being 4 percent higher earlier in the day.

The shares are down 32 percent year-to-date and 59 percent from their all-time high.

Eli Lilly has seen US prescriptions for its Zepbound obesity shot surpass Wegovy since mid-March in its biggest market. Eli Lilly shares were up 2.6 percent after the news.

Camilla Sylvest, Novo’s head of commercial strategy and corporate affairs and a consistent presence alongside CEO Jorgensen, stepped down last month without citing a reason.

Former CEO of Novo Nordisk for 16 years and current chair of the Novo Nordisk Foundation, Lars Rebien Sorensen, will join the board as an observer with immediate effect with the aim of taking a seat at the next annual general meeting, Novo said.

The company is controlled by the Novo Nordisk Foundation through its investment arm, which owns 77 percent of the voting shares.