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 (-0.87% vs -12.65%), though NVO has the better forward P/E setup (2.05x vs 14.30x 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 (+30.82%) than for NVO (+4.50%).
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 | 42.1 | 38.9 |
| AI ranki | #937 | #1280 |
| Latest closei | $160.04 | $45.16 |
| 1M returni | -0.85% | -3.22% |
| 6M returni | -17.92% | +22.45% |
| 1Y returni | -0.87% | -12.65% |
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 | $10.02K (+0.2%) started 2025-09-08 | $9.17K (-8.3%) started 2025-09-08 |
| 5Y ago | $17.11K (+71.1%) started 2021-09-08 | $11.33K (+13.3%) started 2021-09-08 |
| 10Y ago | $43.39K (+333.9%) started 2016-09-08 | $32.18K (+221.8%) started 2016-09-08 |
Hypothetical — past performance does not guarantee future results.
| Metric | AZN | NVO |
|---|---|---|
| Market capi | $251.97B | $199.56B |
| Trailing P/Ei | 24.32 | 11.10 |
| Forward P/Ei | 14.30 | 2.05 |
| Price/Salesi | N/A | 0.61 |
| EV/Revenuei | 4.55 | 0.90 |
| Analyst targeti | $212.54 | $47.19 |
| Target upsidei | +30.82% | +4.50% |
| 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 | 1.97% | 3.86% |
| Betai | 0.21 | 0.34 |
| 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 0.27), 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 | -0.87% | -12.65% |
| CAGRi | -0.87% | -12.66% | |
| Volatilityi | 28.38% | 45.90% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | -0.05 | -0.16 | |
| Sortino ratioi | -0.07 | -0.22 | |
| Max drawdowni | 25.41% | 43.67% | |
| Current drawdowni | 23.29% | 25.89% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 7.94% | 22.40% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 10.77% | 25.16% | |
| Max daily dropi | 6.88% | 16.43% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 14.82% | 26.95% | |
| 5Y | Growthi | +54.54% | +0.58% |
| CAGRi | +9.10% | +0.12% | |
| Volatilityi | 24.83% | 38.86% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.30 | 0.09 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.42 | 0.12 | |
| Max drawdowni | 27.87% | 74.70% | |
| Current drawdowni | 23.29% | 66.71% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 9.48% | 25.05% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 11.82% | 36.15% | |
| Max daily dropi | 8.83% | 21.83% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 14.82% | 33.45% | |
| 10Y | Growthi | +218.17% | +148.28% |
| CAGRi | +12.27% | +9.52% | |
| Volatilityi | 25.16% | 32.73% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.41 | 0.31 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.58 | 0.42 | |
| Max drawdowni | 27.87% | 74.70% | |
| Current drawdowni | 23.29% | 66.71% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 8.21% | 17.19% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 10.58% | 27.00% | |
| 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
Want deeper AI forecasts?
This comparison page is public and free forever. Subscribers can unlock saved watchlists, full AI rankings, detailed forecasts, and interactive analysis tools.
Full valuation workup with AI Score, Monte Carlo forecast, and bull/bear case — free preview, premium data from $3.99.