Stan Wong Novo-Nordisk NVO-N PAST TOP PICK Mar 13, 2025

So many companies now with competing weight-loss products. Riding the hype on this one drug, and he'd much prefer more diversification.

Its stock decline is not unique in this market: most growth companies have been hit very very hard, in one of the sharpest sell-offs we have seen in some time. NVO is 19X earnings now, with a 2.90% dividend. The balance sheet is fine and good growth is still expected over the next two years. We would be comfortable owning this and riding out the current market malaise, which will end one of these days (weeks, or months).
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Is -17% this year and -42% the past year. It went too far too fast. He's been buying more on the way down, because obesity won't change, so their weight-loss drug will keep selling. Tariffs: NVO has facilities in the US already. 60% of revenues are outside North America (vs. Eli Lilly's 60% within US). To extend patent protection, a pharma company just needs to change its formula every 3 years to extend the patent protection. There will be competition, but NVO has brand recognition and scale.

Now a whole slew of competitors in the weight-loss space. He'd prefer a more diversified pharma company.

He's out. Valuation has now become fairly attractive at 16x forward PE for 14-15% growth. Below 200-week MA, troubling. Long term, a name to look at again once things turn around. Losing some market share to LLY.

He prefers Eli Lilly, but shares of NVO have come down enough.

Overvalued to start with, and expectations were high. Small miss on weight loss percentage led to huge drop in stock price. LLY is grabbing more market share. Worry that drugs in US will face tariffs. Buy here, do well in the long run.

Deal to get off injectables and over to tablets. Went up too far, too fast, now has fallen. LLY has 60% of revenues in US, NVO has 60% outside US. Concern is that LLY's product helps people lose more weight. But Type 2 diabetics are still growing worldwide, especially in China and India.

Trades ~16x PE, lowest it's been in almost 20 years. He's buying more. The value is there, and the company's not getting any credit for its weight-loss drug. Don't hold both LLY and NVO, as it's correlation risk.

He's owned this since 2015, trimming 7 times (that's just good risk management). Markets were pushed well ahead of themselves in 2024, and then we saw a big retraction. Fast money has come out of this name. Down ~60%, growing double digits, 16x forward PE (vs. LLY at 43x forward PE). LLY is really strong in the US, but not outside. 

At this valuation, a no-brainer. Again, you make $$ when you buy not when you sell. He's going to wait and see what happens with the CEO position.