Novo Nordisk's new treatment resulted in 22% weigh reduction
Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE:NVO) today announced positive early-stage trial results for its amycretin obesity drug. The treatment, which overweight and obese patients used once a week, resulted in 22% weigh reduction. In response, NVO was last seen up 8.8% to trade at $87.73.
Shares are bouncing off their Jan. 17, 52-week low of $78.17 to blast through their 20-day moving average, which had been acting as resistance since December. The security is also on track for its biggest single-day percentage gain since March 7, as it chips away at a 16.2% year-over-year deficit.
There isn't much contrarian potential fueling today's rally. Short-term options traders already lean bullish, per the stock's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.55 stands higher than only 7% of annual readings. This implies short-term options traders have been more call-biased.
The brokerage bunch echoes this optimism, with 12 of 16 analysts in question calling NVO a "strong buy," while its 12-month consensus target price of $119.76 is a 35.9% premium to current levels.
Drilling down to today's options activity, 21,000 calls and 9,229 puts have crossed the tape, which is four times the intraday average volume. The most popular contracts are the weekly 1/24 90-strike call and the February 90 call, with new positions being opened at the latter.