Polen Capital, an investment management company, released its “Polen Global Growth Strategy” fourth-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Over the past two years, global equities (2023-2024) showed a historic +45% cumulative return as per the MSCI ACWI Index (the “Index”), emphasizing market unpredictability and the futility of macroeconomic projections. The Strategy returned 2.58% gross (2.27% net) in the quarter compared to the MSCI ACW Index’s -0.99% return. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
In its fourth quarter 2024 investor letter, Polen Global Growth Strategy emphasized stocks such as Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO). Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) engages in the research and development, manufacture, and distribution of pharmaceutical products. The one-month return of Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) was -2.90%, and its shares lost 37.88% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On March 18, 2025, Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) stock closed at $80.98 per share with a market capitalization of $357.034 billion.
Polen Global Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“The largest relative detractors in the quarter were Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO), Novo Nordisk, and Adobe. The largest absolute detractors were ICON plc, Novo Nordisk, and L’Oreal.
Recent trial results for Novo Nordisk’s next gen GLP-1, Cagrisema, came in below market expectations, sending the stock down more than 20% on the day of the announcement. In our view, the data read-out itself wasn’t bad but was below bullish expectations for the drug, and the trial design left investors with questions, particularly around tolerability at higher doses. Reflecting these concerns, the stock ended the year 40% off its June 2024 highs, bringing the share price back to the levels seen in August 2023, right after the company reported strong results from its pivotal obesity trial for current generation obesity product. Wegovy. We continue to monitor developments closely but remain confident in Novo’s leadership in addressing the massive and growing GLP-1 market opportunity.”
An elderly couple receiving insulin from a pharmacist, representing healthcare company’s successful pharmaceutical products.
Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 64 hedge fund portfolios held Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) at the end of the fourth quarter compared to 61 in the third quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as NVIDIA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we discussed Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) and shared the list of stocks market experts are talking about these days. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 2024 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.