Novo Nordisk raises full-year sales guidance on Ozempic, Wegovy sales
Novo Nordisk (NVO) shares are up on the last trading day of the week as the pharmaceutical company raises its full-year sales and operating profit outlook citing U.S. sales of GLP-1 weight loss drugs Wegovy and Ozempic.
Yahoo Finance's Julie Hyman and Josh Lipton discuss the news. For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.
Video transcript
JULIE HYMAN: Shares of Novo Nordisk are trading higher again today, up by 2%. This comes as the company is raising its full year sales and operating profit for the third time this year, by the way. The pharmaceutical company is getting a boost citing its weight loss drug, Wegovy, as well as its diabetes medication, Ozempic. All of that spurring the positive outlook today.
This just-- this train just continuing. The hype train just continuing here for Novo Nordisk and these drugs. And this is even despite the fact that there are shortages of these drugs in the United States, which maybe is letting Eli Lilly's Mounjaro gain a little bit more share.
JOSH LIPTON: What's more buzzy, AI or Novo? What do you think?
JULIE HYMAN: Right now--
JOSH LIPTON: This moment.
JULIE HYMAN: At this moment, it's these weight loss drugs.
JOSH LIPTON: I love it.
JULIE HYMAN: I think--
JOSH LIPTON: The most valuable-- the most valuable listed company in Europe now.
JULIE HYMAN: In Europe. I know. It's amazing.
JOSH LIPTON: More than LVMH, right?
JULIE HYMAN: Well, LVMH has had a bit of a tough slog more recently after hitting--
JOSH LIPTON: Disappointing results.
JULIE HYMAN: Yeah, I mean, it had hit its $500 billion market cap, making it the first company to be above that threshold in Europe. Earlier in the year, LVMH did and then fell down. And Novo Nordisk has been up. It's not yet to $500 billion in its market cap, but it's getting there.
JOSH LIPTON: Remember this week, too, we had the studies of Ozempic's potential kidney failure treatments, leading some to argue what can't these drugs do, Julie.
JULIE HYMAN: Yeah, well--
JOSH LIPTON: Where's the limit? I don't know.
JULIE HYMAN: Well, the limit might be, again, competition here in the US, at least for those two drugs in particular. Now Mounjaro in the US is not approved officially for weight loss. It is still explicitly a diabetes drug, but of course, a lot of people get off label indications for weight loss.
And so there is some concern among analysts that Mounjaro might gain a little bit of market share and also some questions about Novo Nordisk raising its forecast at this point in time. Just one thing I was looking at here, when it comes to Novo Nordisk now versus LVMH, according to Bloomberg stats, at least, Novo Nordisk's estimated forward P/E is 40 and 1/2. LVMH is about half that.
JOSH LIPTON: Wow.
JULIE HYMAN: Just to put it in perspective.
JOSH LIPTON: We'll keep watching it.
JULIE HYMAN: We will.
JOSH LIPTON: I can pretty much guarantee it, actually.
JULIE HYMAN: Yeah.