Hardly for the first time in recent weeks and months, Novo Nordisk (NVO 0.02%) stock beat the market on Monday. That isn't necessarily hard to do when you're a company with two of the most popular drugs on U.S. pharmacy shelves. Still, on the inaugural day of the trading week, the shares got a boost with a pair of analyst price target hikes. This sent its stock 3% higher, easily topping the 0.2% rise of the S&P 500 index.
One day, two Novo Nordisk price target raises
The twin hikes came from J.P. Morgan prognosticator Richard Vosser and Morgan Stanley analyst Mark Purcell. The former upped his price target on Novo Nordisk to 800 Danish kroner ($115) per share from the previous 750 kroner ($108), while the latter raised his to 730 kroner ($105) from 705 kroner ($101). Both maintained their equivalent of a buy recommendation.
The price target boosts weren't much of a surprise.
After all, they came one business day after another increase, this one a bump from Jefferies analyst Peter Welford. He ticked his level up to 430 kroner ($62) per share from 425 kroner ($61), even though he's still bearish on the company with an underperform (read: sell) recommendation.
People can't get enough of Wegovy and Ozempic
All of these moves were made in the wake of Novo Nordisk's latest earnings release. This occurred last Thursday, with the documentation revealing that the pharmaceutical company posted 29% year-over-year growth in sales in the first nine months of 2023. This was mostly due to the insatiable popularity of the company's obesity and diabetes drugs, Wegovy and Ozempic.
