AZN vs NVO Stock Comparison: AI Score, Valuation, Performance and Upside
AstraZeneca and Novo Nordisk are both major European pharmaceutical companies, but AstraZeneca has built a broad, diversified portfolio spanning oncology, cardiovascular, and respiratory diseases, while Novo Nordisk is more concentrated around its leading position in GLP-1 diabetes and obesity treatments.
AZN offers diversified exposure across multiple therapeutic areas including a strong oncology franchise, while NVO offers concentrated exposure to the rapidly growing GLP-1 obesity and diabetes treatment market. The decision depends on whether you prefer broad pharmaceutical diversification or concentrated leverage to GLP-1 market growth.
AZN holds the edge across 3 of 5 key metrics in this comparison. AZN has delivered stronger 1-year price return (+3.88% vs -22.98%), though NVO has the better forward P/E setup (1.71x vs 14.10x for AZN). On fundamentals, AZN is growing revenue faster (6.40%), while NVO maintains the higher operating margin (42.54%) — a classic growth-versus-profitability split. Analyst consensus implies meaningfully more upside for AZN (+32.92%) than for NVO (+15.67%).
Human Wall Street analysts' price targets, typically implying a ~12-month view — a separate signal from this site's own AI Prediction Signal further down the page, which is a 5-/30-day machine-learning forecast based on price history alone.
- Want diversified exposure across oncology, cardiovascular, respiratory, and rare disease treatments
- Value a broad global commercial infrastructure supporting drug launches across many markets
- Believe diversification across therapeutic areas reduces single-drug or single-disease dependence
- Prefer a broadly diversified pharmaceutical company over one concentrated in a single drug category
- Want concentrated exposure to the rapidly growing GLP-1 obesity and diabetes treatment market
- Value the company's leading market position and decades of diabetes care expertise
- Believe continued GLP-1 demand growth will support sustained revenue and earnings expansion
- Are comfortable with revenue concentration in a single, albeit fast-growing, drug category
| Metric | AZN | NVO |
|---|---|---|
| AI scorei | 52.6 | 41.5 |
| AI ranki | #426 | #1069 |
| Latest closei | $171.49 | $39.05 |
| 1M returni | +5.00% | +2.31% |
| 3M returni | +1.32% | -18.91% |
| 6M returni | -9.62% | -3.94% |
| 1Y returni | +3.88% | -22.98% |
How much would $10,000 be worth today if invested at the start of each period, with all dividends reinvested?
| Period | AZN | NVO |
|---|---|---|
| 1Y ago | $10.5K (+5.0%) started 2025-10-23 | $8.09K (-19.1%) started 2025-10-23 |
| 5Y ago | $16.94K (+69.4%) started 2021-10-25 | $9.29K (-7.1%) started 2021-10-25 |
| 10Y ago | $51.07K (+410.7%) started 2016-10-24 | $31.33K (+213.3%) started 2016-10-24 |
Hypothetical — past performance does not guarantee future results.
| Metric | AZN | NVO |
|---|---|---|
| Market capi | $248.41B | $172.28B |
| Trailing P/Ei | 23.98 | 9.46 |
| Forward P/Ei | 14.10 | 1.71 |
| Price/Salesi | N/A | 0.52 |
| EV/Revenuei | 4.50 | 0.81 |
| Analyst targeti | $212.90 | $45.17 |
| Target upsidei | +32.92% | +15.67% |
| Metric | AZN | NVO |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue growthi | 6.40% | 2.10% |
| Earnings growthi | 2.50% | -20.60% |
| EPS growthi | +2.50% | -20.60% |
| FCF margini | +7.99% | +11.44% |
| Operating margini | 23.46% | 42.54% |
| Profit margini | 17.02% | 35.35% |
| ROIC proxyi | 21.96% | 59.81% |
| Return on equityi | 21.96% | 59.81% |
| Dividend yieldi | 2.00% | 4.60% |
| Payout ratioi | 46.95% | 45.09% |
| Dividend growth streaki | 2 yrs | 7 yrs |
| Betai | 0.20 | 0.38 |
| Debt/equityi | 64.22 | 63.33 |
| Current ratioi | 0.89 | 0.87 |
| Quick ratioi | 0.66 | 0.64 |
Over the past year, AZN and NVO have moved weakly in the same direction (correlation of 0.26), based on daily returns.
Lower drawdown and smaller single-period drops generally indicate a smoother ride, though they do not guarantee lower future risk.
| Period | Metric | AZN | NVO |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Y | Growthi | +3.88% | -22.98% |
| CAGRi | +3.89% | -22.99% | |
| Volatilityi | 27.33% | 45.48% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.11 | -0.44 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.16 | -0.59 | |
| Max drawdowni | 25.41% | 43.67% | |
| Current drawdowni | 17.80% | 35.92% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 10.28% | 23.59% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 13.27% | 26.78% | |
| Max daily dropi | 6.88% | 16.43% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 14.82% | 26.95% | |
| 5Y | Growthi | +52.99% | -17.51% |
| CAGRi | +8.89% | -3.78% | |
| Volatilityi | 24.87% | 39.06% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.29 | -0.01 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.40 | -0.02 | |
| Max drawdowni | 27.87% | 74.70% | |
| Current drawdowni | 17.80% | 71.22% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 10.03% | 26.85% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 12.34% | 37.92% | |
| Max daily dropi | 8.83% | 21.83% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 14.82% | 33.45% | |
| 10Y | Growthi | +274.48% | +141.72% |
| CAGRi | +14.12% | +9.23% | |
| Volatilityi | 25.20% | 32.79% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.47 | 0.30 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.67 | 0.41 | |
| Max drawdowni | 27.87% | 74.70% | |
| Current drawdowni | 17.80% | 71.22% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 7.93% | 17.40% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 10.32% | 27.80% | |
| Max daily dropi | 14.91% | 21.83% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 16.45% | 33.45% |
| Category | AZN | NVO |
|---|---|---|
| Company | AstraZeneca PLC (ADR) | Novo Nordisk A/S (ADR) |
| Sector | Healthcare | GLP-1 |
| Industry | Drug Manufacturers - General | Drug Manufacturers - General |
| Core business | A British-Swedish pharmaceutical company with a broad drug portfolio spanning oncology, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, respiratory conditions, and rare diseases, sold across global markets. | A Danish pharmaceutical company specializing in diabetes and obesity care, best known for its GLP-1 receptor agonist drugs used for both diabetes management and weight loss treatment. |
| Investor focus | Oncology drug portfolio growth and pipeline progress, revenue diversification across therapeutic areas and geographies, and patent expiration timing for key existing products. | GLP-1 drug demand and manufacturing capacity expansion to meet obesity treatment demand, competitive dynamics within the growing GLP-1 market, and pipeline diversification beyond diabetes and obesity. |
- Broad, diversified oncology portfolio spans multiple cancer types and treatment modalities, reducing reliance on any single drug
- Diversification across oncology, cardiovascular, respiratory, and rare disease therapeutic areas reduces dependence on any single disease category
- Established global commercial infrastructure supports drug launches across both developed and emerging markets
- Leading position in the rapidly growing GLP-1 obesity and diabetes treatment market provides substantial revenue growth exposure
- Long-standing expertise in diabetes care built over decades supports continued innovation within its core therapeutic focus
- Strong demand for its GLP-1 products has driven substantial revenue and earnings growth in recent years
- Patent expirations on existing key products require continued pipeline innovation to offset eventual generic competition
- Drug development carries inherent clinical trial and regulatory approval risk across its broad pipeline
- Faces competition from other large pharmaceutical companies developing competing treatments across its various therapeutic areas
- Revenue is heavily concentrated in the GLP-1 drug category, making the company sensitive to competitive dynamics within that specific market
- Manufacturing capacity constraints have at times limited the company's ability to fully meet GLP-1 product demand
- Faces intensifying competition from other pharmaceutical companies developing competing GLP-1 and next-generation obesity treatments
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