Novo Nordisk A/S (ADR) (NVO): Insiders Aren’t Crazy About It

Novo Nordisk A/S (ADR) (NYSE:NVO) was in 13 hedge funds’ portfolio at the end of the first quarter of 2013. NVO shareholders have witnessed a decrease in support from the world’s most elite money managers lately. There were 14 hedge funds in our database with NVO positions at the end of the previous quarter.

At the moment, there are dozens of metrics shareholders can use to analyze the equity markets. A duo of the most useful are hedge fund and insider trading interest. At Insider Monkey, our studies have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite fund managers can outperform their index-focused peers by a healthy margin (see just how much).

Equally as integral, bullish insider trading activity is another way to parse down the marketplace. There are many incentives for a corporate insider to drop shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Various empirical studies have demonstrated the useful potential of this method if piggybackers understand where to look (learn more here).

Keeping this in mind, we’re going to take a gander at the latest action surrounding Novo Nordisk A/S (ADR) (NYSE:NVO).

What have hedge funds been doing with Novo Nordisk A/S (ADR) (NYSE:NVO)?

In preparation for this quarter, a total of 13 of the hedge funds we track were bullish in this stock, a change of -7% from the previous quarter. With the smart money’s positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of notable hedge fund managers who were increasing their holdings considerably.

According to our comprehensive database, Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management had the biggest position in Novo Nordisk A/S (ADR) (NYSE:NVO), worth close to $430.7 million, comprising 1.1% of its total 13F portfolio. On Fisher Asset Management’s heels is Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies, with a $424.4 million position; 1% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Some other hedge funds with similar optimism include Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, Tom Gayner’s Markel Gayner Asset Management and Israel Englander’s Millennium Management.

Judging by the fact that Novo Nordisk A/S (ADR) (NYSE:NVO) has experienced falling interest from the aggregate hedge fund industry, logic holds that there is a sect of money managers that decided to sell off their entire stakes heading into Q2. It’s worth mentioning that Mike Vranos’s Ellington said goodbye to the biggest stake of all the hedgies we track, worth about $0.9 million in stock.. Murray Stahl’s fund, Horizon Asset Management, also dumped its stock, about $0.3 million worth. These transactions are interesting, as total hedge fund interest fell by 1 funds heading into Q2.

How are insiders trading Novo Nordisk A/S (ADR) (NYSE:NVO)?

Insider purchases made by high-level executives is best served when the primary stock in question has seen transactions within the past half-year. Over the last 180-day time frame, Novo Nordisk A/S (ADR) (NYSE:NVO) has experienced zero unique insiders buying, and zero insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).

Let’s go over hedge fund and insider activity in other stocks similar to Novo Nordisk A/S (ADR) (NYSE:NVO). These stocks are Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Limited (ADR) (NYSE:RDY), Pharmacyclics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PCYC), Forest Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:FRX), Allergan, Inc. (NYSE:AGN), and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:TEVA). This group of stocks belong to the drug manufacturers – other industry and their market caps are similar to NVO’s market cap.