NVO Stock Hits New High on Sunny Full-Year Forecast

Pharma stock Novo Nordisk (NYSE:NVO) is trading higher after the firm lifted its full-year sales outlook, and announced its Ozempic diabetes drug reached blockbuster status in the U.S. during its first nine months on the market, generating $1.03 billion in sales -- beating analysts' expectations. Some of these gains, however, have been tamped by the Eli Lilly (LLY) competitor's third-quarter operating profit, which missed analysts' estimates.

At last check, NVO is up 3.8% at $57.28, earlier hitting a new annual high of $57.29. Since a brief pullback to familiar support at its 200-day moving average in late September, the stock has been climbing up the charts, notching a 6.8% gain for October, and a nearly 24% gain for the year.

Consensus among the brokerage bunch is split, with three analysts giving NVO stock a "strong buy" rating, and three saying it's a "hold" or worse. What's more, the 12-month average target price of $57.90 is just a slim 1.1% premium to current levels. 

The options pits, on the other hand, are overwhelmingly bullish. Over 180 calls have been bought to open for every put on the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX). Novo Nordisk's 10-day put/call volume ratio of 186.32 sits higher than all but 3% of similar readings from the past year, indicating that this rate of call buying relative to put buying is highly unusual.