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Novo Nordisk A/S

Data period: Annual Quarterly Graham uses annual
NYSE · Healthcare
Novo Nordisk A/S
NVO · Drug Manufacturers - General
$39.80
▼ -3.44 (-7.96%)
Cached · 10 min
Overall Grade
C
Defensive
C
Enterprising
Profitability
A
Gross Profit Margin 78.2%
Operating Margin 34.5%
Net Income Margin 26.7%
Fin. Health
F
Years to Pay Off Debt 6.7 yrs
Working Capital vs Long-Term Debt -$152.2B
Working Capital -$30.4B
Valuation
A
Margin of Safety 52.6%
Price-to-Book 0.60x
Cash Flow
C
Free Cash Flow $42.4B
CapEx % of Net Income 61.0%
Owner Earnings $44.1B
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. It operates through two segments, Obesity and Diabetes Care, and Rare Disease. The Obesity and Diabetes care segment provides products for diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular, and other emerging therapy areas. The Rare Disease segment offers products in the areas of rare blood disorders, rare endocrine disorders, and hormone replacement therapy. The company also provides NovoPen 6 and NovoPen Echo Plus, smart insulin pens; Dose Check, an insulin dose guidance application; growth hormone pens and injection needles; and Wegovy pill an oral glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist therapy for weight management. The company has a collaboration with Anthropic accelerate the development of new medicines and advance AI-driven software development. It operates in Europe, Canada, the United States, Japan, Korea, Oceania, Southeast Asia, Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. It has a strategic collaboration with Orbis Medicines to discover and develop oral macrocycle therapeutics for cardiometabolic diseases. The company was formerly known as Novo Industri A/S and changed its name to Novo Nordisk A/S in April 1989. The company was founded in 1923 and is headquartered in Bagsvaerd, Denmark.
Metric Explanations
What each dimension measures and where the thresholds come from.
Gross Profit Margin
Revenue minus cost of goods sold. Graham's ≥40% threshold identifies businesses with durable pricing power. Note: software and financial companies naturally exceed this; retailers and manufacturers rarely reach it due to their cost structures.
Operating Margin
Profit after operating costs before interest and taxes. A consistent ≥15% operating margin signals a business with real competitive advantages. Capital-intensive industries (airlines, auto, commodities) rarely hit this threshold due to their structural cost base — compare within industry for context.
Net Income Margin
Bottom-line profit as a percentage of revenue. The ≥20% target reflects Buffett's preference for highly profitable businesses. Financial engineering (buybacks, tax optimisation) can inflate this temporarily — look for consistency across multiple years rather than a single strong result.
Years to Pay Off Debt
Total Debt ÷ Net Income. Lower = stronger balance sheet. Important caveat: utilities, telecoms, REITs, and infrastructure companies carry large structural debt by design — their bond-like cash flows service it comfortably at ratios that would alarm Graham. Compare within sector.
Working Capital vs Long-Term Debt
Working Capital minus Long-Term Debt. Negative results are common and expected in capital-return-focused businesses like Apple, Domino's, and McDonald's — where aggressive buybacks and dividends intentionally reduce book equity. This does not indicate financial distress in high-FCF businesses.
Working Capital
Current Assets minus Current Liabilities. Negative working capital can be a deliberate efficiency strategy in businesses that collect cash before paying suppliers (retailers, fast food franchises, subscription businesses). Assess alongside free cash flow generation for full context.
Margin of Safety
How far below the Graham Number the stock trades. Graham required a 33% discount as a buffer against analytical error. However, the Graham Number itself assumes 1960s-era P/E and P/B norms — for modern asset-light businesses it often understates true intrinsic value, making 0% MoS appear misleadingly bad.
Price-to-Book
Market price vs book value per share. Rarely below 1.5x for quality businesses today. Intangible assets (brand, software, patents) don't appear on the balance sheet under accounting rules, making P/B artificially high for asset-light companies like software and consumer brands.
Free Cash Flow
Operating cash flow minus capital expenditures. Buffett's most important metric — cash a business actually generates for its owners after maintaining and growing its asset base. Consistently positive FCF is one of the strongest indicators of a durable, well-run business regardless of accounting profits.
CapEx % of Net Income
Capital expenditure as a share of net income. Low CapEx signals a capital-light business that doesn't need heavy reinvestment to sustain earnings — Buffett's ideal. High CapEx is structurally necessary in manufacturing, airlines, telecoms, and semiconductors. For these industries, a high reading reflects the business model, not poor management.
Owner Earnings
Net Income + Depreciation & Amortisation − Capital Expenditures. Buffett's preferred measure of a company's true annual earning power — what could theoretically be distributed to owners without impairing the business. More reliable than reported EPS because it accounts for the capital cost of maintaining the business.
Market Cap $175.8B
Enterprise Value $271.4B
P/E (TTM) 9.88
Dividend Yield 27.06%
Exchange NYSE
Gross Profit 78.2%
Operating Margin 34.5%
Net Margin 26.7%
Sector Healthcare
Industry Drug Manufacturers - General
Employees 66700
Country Denmark
📖
Full Graham Analysis

Mr. Market is currently offering Novo Nordisk A/S at $39.80.

The business passes 4 of 6 of Graham's defensive criteria — adequate but not exceptional.

At $39.80, the stock trades below its Graham Number of $84.02 — suggesting a margin of safety exists.

The margin of safety of 52.6% exceeds Graham's recommended 33% threshold — a rare opportunity.

Negative NCAV — liabilities exceed current assets. Common in capital-return businesses (buybacks, debt-funded dividends) and capital-intensive industries. Not automatically a warning sign..

Conclusion: This stock is better suited for Graham's Enterprising investor — one willing to devote time and skill to security selection.

Showing Key Metrics
Income Highlights
Metric Q2 2026 Q4 2025
Gross Profit % 78.2% 80.9%
Operating Margin % 34.5% 40.1%
Net Income % 26.7% 34.0%
Diluted EPS 4.74 6.04
Balance Sheet Highlights
Metric Q2 2026 Q4 2025 Q4 2024
Total Assets $594.9B $542.9B N/A
Total Debt $140.1B $131.0B N/A
Working Capital -$30.4B -$43.2B N/A
Years to Pay Debt 6.68 4.87 N/A
Cash Flow Highlights
Metric Q2 2026 Q4 2025 Q4 2024
Free Cash Flow $42.4B -$36.2B N/A
Owner Earnings $44.1B $69.0B N/A
CapEx % of Net Income 61.0% 163.0% N/A
📊 Quarterly mode — Graham Fair Value & 7 Criteria require annual data. Switch to Annual for full analysis.
Quarter vs Same Quarter Last Year
YoY strips seasonality
Revenue Growth (YoY)
Prior year: $76.9B ▲ $78.5B +2.1%
Revenue growth vs same quarter last year strips seasonality. Consistent double-digit growth is a Buffett hallmark.
Gross Margin
Prior year: 83.3% ▼ 78.2% -5.1pp
Buffett: consistent gross margin above 40% signals durable pricing power and competitive moat.
Operating Margin
Prior year: 35.2% ▼ 34.5% -0.7pp
Graham: operating margin reflects true business economics before financing. Trend matters as much as level.
Net Margin
Prior year: 34.5% ▼ 26.7% -7.7pp
Net margin can be distorted by one-time items, tax timing, or interest costs — compare to operating margin for signal quality.
Quarterly Health Checks
3 Graham/Buffett criteria that are valid and reliable on quarterly data
✅ Adequate Size
Graham required scale for resilience. Quarterly revenue × 4 gives an annualised proxy.
$78.5B/qtr (≈$314.0B ann.)
vs > $1.5B annualised revenue
❌ Financial Condition
Current assets vs current liabilities — a real-time liquidity snapshot. Valid and reliable on quarterly data.
0.87x current ratio
vs ≥ 2.0x
✅ Free Cash Flow
Buffett's most important single metric. A positive FCF quarter means the business generated real cash for owners after maintaining its asset base.
$42.4B
vs Positive
Operating Cash Flow
$55.2B
Latest quarter · Buffett's cash reality check
ROIC
6.0%
Based on latest annual operating income
Return on Invested Capital — Buffett's preferred measure for asset-light businesses. ROIC > 15% consistently signals a durable competitive advantage (moat). More meaningful than P/B for software, pharma, and consumer brand companies where most value is intangible and off-balance-sheet.
Market Cap / Net Assets
0.6x
Net Assets: $221.3B
⚠️ Net margin compressed 7.7pp vs same quarter last year. Common causes: one-time charges (restructuring, write-downs, legal settlements), tax rate changes, or rising interest expense. Check the income statement notes before drawing conclusions about operating health.
Peers & Industry
No auto-detected peers for Drug Manufacturers - General. You can manually compare NVO against any stock using the Compare tool.
"The management of a business is its most important single factor — more important than market position, patents, or financial structure."
— Benjamin Graham
Capital Allocation & Alignment
Insider Ownership
0.00%
Low — management has little skin in the game
Return on Equity (ROE)
9.5%
Adequate — returns are moderate
Return on Assets (ROA)
3.5%
Fair — average asset utilization
Share Buybacks (Latest Year)
$1.4B
Management is returning capital to shareholders via buybacks
Debt Trend YoY
-4.3% YoY
Debt is declining — management is deleveraging
Leadership Team
Karsten Munk Knudsen
Executive VP, CFO & Member of the Management Board
Age 54
Pay: $2,640,578
0.013% of net income
Maziar Mike Doustdar
President, CEO & Member of the Management Board
Age 55
Elin Jager
SVP, Chief of Staff to CEO, Corporate Strategy & Sustainability and Member of Management Board
Age 39
Top Institutional Holders
Institution % Owned Shares
Dodge & Cox Inc. 0.60% 20,397,110
LOOMIS SAYLES & CO L P 0.55% 18,594,352
Franklin Resources, Inc. 0.38% 13,041,109
Price (T.Rowe) Associates Inc 0.35% 11,704,719
Morgan Stanley 0.34% 11,659,869
Bank of America Corporation 0.33% 11,176,712
Capital International Investors 0.29% 9,721,180
Folketrygdfondet 0.28% 9,522,383
⚠️ Current ratio below 1 — liquidity risk
Risk Analysis
Beta (Market Risk)
0.34
Low volatility — more stable than the market
Short Interest
1.0% of float
Low short interest — market is not heavily bearish
Debt-to-Equity
0.63x
Conservative balance sheet — low financial risk
Current Ratio
0.87x
Weak liquidity — current liabilities exceed current assets
52-Week Price Range
Low: $35.12 Current: $39.80 High: $64.16
Currently at 16% of 52-week range

Novo Nordisk A/S (NVO) fundamental analysis — Overall grade C based on profitability, financial health, valuation and cash flow. Graham's Fair Value: $84.02. Margin of safety: 52.6%. Gross profit margin: 78.2%. Operating margin: 34.5%. Net margin: 26.7%. Market cap: $175.8B. Sector: Healthcare. Industry: Drug Manufacturers - General. Analysis powered by 360investing — free fundamental stock analysis based on Benjamin Graham and Warren Buffett principles.

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