NVO vs VKTX Stock Comparison: AI Score, Valuation, Performance and Upside
NVO and VKTX are not comparable as businesses, only as ways to express a view on obesity treatment. Novo Nordisk sells approved GLP-1 products at very large scale and is judged on competitive share, pricing, and manufacturing. Viking Therapeutics has no approved product and is judged entirely on clinical data. One is a large pharmaceutical company with real earnings; the other is a binary clinical bet.
Use this NVO vs VKTX comparison to size positions according to the risk. Novo can disappoint and still generate substantial profits. Viking's outcome is closer to binary: strong pivotal data and a credible commercial path would be worth a great deal, while a tolerability problem or a failed endpoint could remove most of the value quickly.
VKTX holds the edge across 3 of 5 key metrics in this comparison. VKTX has delivered stronger 1-year price return (+33.53% vs -27.31%), though NVO has the better forward P/E setup (1.76x vs -7.76x for VKTX). Analyst consensus implies meaningfully more upside for VKTX (+175.81%) than for NVO (+19.57%).
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 obesity and diabetes exposure through approved, revenue-generating products
- Value manufacturing scale and established payer relationships
- Prefer a profitable, dividend-paying pharmaceutical company
- Accept competitive share loss and pricing pressure as the main risks
- Want high-upside exposure to a next-generation obesity candidate
- Understand the outcome depends almost entirely on clinical trial results
- Accept that a single tolerability signal could permanently impair the investment
- Are sizing it as a speculative biotech position rather than a healthcare core holding
| Metric | NVO | VKTX |
|---|---|---|
| AI scorei | 40.1 | 46.0 |
| AI ranki | #1088 | #670 |
| Latest closei | $38.80 | $35.56 |
| 1M returni | -17.78% | +3.43% |
| 6M returni | +13.03% | +9.35% |
| 1Y returni | -27.31% | +33.53% |
How much would $10,000 be worth today if invested at the start of each period, with all dividends reinvested?
| Period | NVO | VKTX |
|---|---|---|
| 1Y ago | $7.63K (-23.7%) started 2025-09-25 | $14.17K (+41.7%) started 2025-09-25 |
| 5Y ago | $9.89K (-1.1%) started 2021-09-27 | $53.31K (+433.1%) started 2021-09-27 |
| 10Y ago | $28.59K (+185.9%) started 2016-09-26 | $269.39K (+2593.9%) started 2016-09-26 |
Hypothetical — past performance does not guarantee future results.
| Metric | NVO | VKTX |
|---|---|---|
| Market capi | $171.37B | $3.91B |
| Trailing P/Ei | 9.72 | N/A |
| Forward P/Ei | 1.76 | -7.76 |
| Price/Salesi | 0.52 | N/A |
| EV/Revenuei | 0.81 | N/A |
| Analyst targeti | $46.39 | $92.39 |
| Target upsidei | +19.57% | +175.81% |
| Metric | NVO | VKTX |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue growthi | 2.10% | N/A |
| Earnings growthi | -20.60% | N/A |
| EPS growthi | -20.60% | N/A |
| FCF margini | +11.44% | N/A |
| Operating margini | 42.54% | 0.00% |
| Profit margini | 35.35% | 0.00% |
| ROIC proxyi | 59.81% | -88.85% |
| Return on equityi | 59.81% | -88.85% |
| Dividend yieldi | 4.63% | N/A |
| Payout ratioi | 44.46% | 0.00% |
| Dividend growth streaki | 7 yrs | N/A |
| Betai | 0.34 | 0.69 |
| Debt/equityi | 63.33 | 1.00 |
| Current ratioi | 0.87 | 4.72 |
| Quick ratioi | 0.64 | 4.58 |
Over the past year, NVO and VKTX have moved barely in the same direction (correlation of 0.15), 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 | NVO | VKTX |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Y | Growthi | -27.31% | +41.73% |
| CAGRi | -27.32% | +41.80% | |
| Volatilityi | 46.14% | 68.59% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | -0.56 | 0.77 | |
| Sortino ratioi | -0.74 | 1.35 | |
| Max drawdowni | 43.67% | 35.53% | |
| Current drawdowni | 36.33% | 15.59% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 22.93% | 16.19% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 25.67% | 18.37% | |
| Max daily dropi | 16.43% | 11.76% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 26.95% | 13.56% | |
| 5Y | Growthi | -12.17% | +433.13% |
| CAGRi | -2.57% | +39.81% | |
| Volatilityi | 39.08% | 103.21% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.02 | 0.71 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.02 | 1.44 | |
| Max drawdowni | 74.70% | 78.86% | |
| Current drawdowni | 71.40% | 62.37% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 25.72% | 44.97% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 36.83% | 50.25% | |
| Max daily dropi | 21.83% | 42.12% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 33.45% | 38.89% | |
| 10Y | Growthi | +120.61% | +2593.94% |
| CAGRi | +8.24% | +39.03% | |
| Volatilityi | 32.82% | 97.81% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.27 | 0.70 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.37 | 1.43 | |
| Max drawdowni | 74.70% | 89.26% | |
| Current drawdowni | 71.40% | 62.37% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 17.27% | 50.82% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 27.29% | 56.24% | |
| Max daily dropi | 21.83% | 42.12% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 33.45% | 38.89% |
| Category | NVO | VKTX |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Novo Nordisk A/S | Viking Therapeutics, Inc. |
| Sector | Healthcare / Pharmaceuticals | Healthcare |
| Industry | Drug Manufacturers - General | Biotechnology |
| Core business | Danish pharmaceutical company built on diabetes and obesity care. Its semaglutide franchise spans injectable and oral formulations for type 2 diabetes and weight management, alongside a long-standing insulin business and next-generation obesity candidates. | Clinical-stage biotechnology company developing metabolic disease treatments, most prominently a dual GIP and GLP-1 receptor agonist in both injectable and oral formulations, plus programmes in liver disease. |
| Investor focus | Prescription share versus its main GLP-1 competitor, manufacturing capacity, pricing and reimbursement pressure, oral obesity treatment uptake, and next-generation trial results. | Late-stage trial results and tolerability data, oral formulation progress, cash runway, and whether it partners or attempts commercialisation alone. |
- Approved, commercially proven obesity and diabetes products generating very large revenue today
- Decades of peptide manufacturing expertise and scale that new entrants cannot quickly match
- Established payer relationships and global commercial infrastructure
- Early trial data attracted attention for weight reduction magnitude, putting it among the more watched obesity challengers
- Developing both injectable and oral formulations, which broadens the potential opportunity
- As a small company, positive pivotal data or a partnership would be transformational
- Has been losing share and narrative momentum to its principal GLP-1 competitor
- Pricing pressure and reimbursement negotiations weigh on realised revenue per prescription
- Later-stage pipeline disappointments have repeatedly repriced the shares sharply
- No approved products and no product revenue, so value rests entirely on trial outcomes
- Tolerability and discontinuation rates are as important as weight loss and have sunk rivals before
- Would need a partner or enormous capital to manufacture and commercialise at scale
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