{"id":244743,"date":"2025-12-21T19:11:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T19:11:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/244743\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T19:11:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T19:11:17","slug":"1-healthcare-giant-set-to-soar-in-2026-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/244743\/","title":{"rendered":"1 Healthcare Giant Set to Soar in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"yf-h8k6hx\">\n<li class=\"yf-h8k6hx\">\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">Novo Nordisk cut its guidance and changed its CEO this past year.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"yf-h8k6hx\">\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">Amid the troubling developments, the stock has nose-dived more than 40%.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"yf-h8k6hx\">\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">It trades at a dirt cheap price-to-earnings multiple that&#8217;s well below its 10-year average.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"yf-h8k6hx\">\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\"><a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/api.fool.com\/infotron\/infotrack\/click?apikey=35527423-a535-4519-a07f-20014582e03e&amp;impression=e44d8dc9-29ce-4f6c-b0fa-86c3233eeb63&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-sa-nonbbn-kp%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaedikp0000053%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_veh%3Dkeypoints_pitch_feed_yahoo%26ftm_pit%3D17670\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:10 stocks we like better than Novo Nordisk \u203a;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\">10 stocks we like better than Novo Nordisk \u203a<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">Healthcare stocks haven&#8217;t gotten a lot of love from investors in recent years. While the market has been strong and the <strong>S&amp;P 500<\/strong> has rallied by 84% in the past five years, the <strong>Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF<\/strong> has risen by less than half that rate, at just 36%.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">That means that many healthcare stocks could be vastly undervalued heading into 2026.\u00a0As investors start to worry about high valuations in tech and the overall\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/investing\/stock-market\/?utm_source=yahoo-host-full&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;referring_guid=368b3e0c-8929-4b94-ad69-253a65f9522d\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:stock market;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">stock market<\/a>, they may turn to more modestly priced stocks, such as those in the healthcare sector, which offer\u00a0much more upside.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">One healthcare giant that I expect will take off in 2026 is <strong>Novo Nordisk <\/strong>(NYSE: NVO).<\/p>\n<p>    <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==\" alt=\"People at a business meeting reviewing results.\" loading=\"eager\" height=\"523\" width=\"960\" class=\"yf-lglytj loader\"\/> Image source: Getty Images.         <\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">It hasn&#8217;t been a good year for Novo Nordisk, to say the least. Although healthcare stocks have generally performed well, and the Health Care Select exchange-traded fund is up 12% in 2025, shares of Novo Nordisk have plummeted by 44%. It&#8217;s been an unusually bad performance by one of the leading <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/investing\/stock-market\/market-sectors\/healthcare\/?utm_source=yahoo-host-full&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;referring_guid=368b3e0c-8929-4b94-ad69-253a65f9522d\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:healthcare companies;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">healthcare companies<\/a> in the world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">The company simply hasn&#8217;t been generating the level of growth that investors have been expecting. It&#8217;s been fighting to stop compounding pharmacies from selling copies of its popular GLP-1 drugs, including Ozempic, a popular treatment for diabetes that also helps people lose weight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">That cut into its sales, resulting in management reducing its guidance for the year. It projects between just 8% and 14% growth for the full year (versus 13% to 21% previously). A particularly big blow is that Wegovy, its top weight loss drug, is projected to grow by just 14% this year, down from an earlier forecast of 21%.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">Amid these challenges, the company has also made a change at the CEO position, with Maziar Mike Doustdar now leading the business and taking over from Lars Fruergaard J\u00f8rgensen. A change in management can rattle a stock, and with all these developments happening at once, it&#8217;s effectively been a perfect storm that has sent Novo Nordisk&#8217;s stock into a wild tailspin this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">Shares of Novo Nordisk are down big this year and are now trading at around their four-year lows. Buying the stock today would be almost as if you bought it after the company obtained approval for Wegovy. That approval came in June 2021, when Novo&#8217;s stock was trading around $42.<\/p>\n<p> Story Continues  <\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">The stock is also at historically low levels with respect to earnings, with its price-to-earnings multiple (P\/E) at just 14 right now, which is well below its 10-year average.<\/p>\n<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/ycharts.com\/companies\/NVO\/chart\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw==\" alt=\"NVO PE Ratio Chart\" loading=\"lazy\" height=\"441\" width=\"720\" class=\"yf-lglytj loader\"\/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/ycharts.com\/companies\/NVO\/pe_ratio\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:NVO PE Ratio;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">NVO PE Ratio<\/a> data by <a href=\"https:\/\/ycharts.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:YCharts.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">YCharts.<\/a>     <\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">Whenever there&#8217;s a flurry of bad news, it can lead to an overreaction, which is what I believe has happened with Novo Nordisk&#8217;s stock this past year. It may only be a matter of time before it begins to rally again.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">The company has been suing compounding pharmacies to stop selling copies of its drugs, and that alone could improve its sales growth next year. Plus, the company is working on developing an oral weight-loss pill, which has been showing promise in late-stage trials.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">There are multiple possible catalysts ahead in 2026. Anything that sparks investor interest in the stock next year could lead to a snowball effect, given its current incredibly low valuation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">I believe Novo Nordisk is poised for a significant rally next year.\u00a0For long-term investors, the\u00a0growth stock appears to be\u00a0a no-brainer buy at its current levels.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">Before you buy stock in Novo Nordisk, consider this:<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/api.fool.com\/infotron\/infotrack\/click?apikey=35527423-a535-4519-a07f-20014582e03e&amp;impression=6e849cf2-d8f1-4f11-b2b8-660138dcfa7e&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-sa-bbn-bn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0001162%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_veh%3Darticle_pitch_feed_yahoo%26ftm_pit%3D18417&amp;utm_source=yahoo-host-full&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;referring_guid=368b3e0c-8929-4b94-ad69-253a65f9522d\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:10 best stocks;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">10 best stocks<\/a><\/strong> for investors to buy now\u2026 and Novo Nordisk wasn\u2019t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">Consider when <strong>Netflix<\/strong> made this list on December 17, 2004&#8230; if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation,\u00a0<strong>you\u2019d have $511,196<\/strong>!* Or when <strong>Nvidia<\/strong> made this list on April 15, 2005&#8230; if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, <strong>you\u2019d have $1,047,897<\/strong>!*<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">Now, it\u2019s worth noting\u00a0Stock Advisor\u2019s total average return is 951% \u2014 a market-crushing outperformance compared to 192% for the S&amp;P 500.\u00a0<strong>Don&#8217;t miss the latest top 10 list, available with\u00a0Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\"><a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/api.fool.com\/infotron\/infotrack\/click?apikey=35527423-a535-4519-a07f-20014582e03e&amp;impression=6e849cf2-d8f1-4f11-b2b8-660138dcfa7e&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fool.com%2Fmms%2Fmark%2Fe-sa-bbn-bn%3Faid%3D8867%26source%3Disaeditxt0001162%26ftm_cam%3Dsa-bbn-evergreen%26ftm_pit%3D18417%26ftm_veh%3Darticle_pitch_feed_yahoo%26company%3DNovo%2520Nordisk&amp;utm_source=yahoo-host-full&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=article&amp;referring_guid=368b3e0c-8929-4b94-ad69-253a65f9522d\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:See the 10 stocks \u00bb;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\"><strong>See the 10 stocks \u00bb<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\">*Stock Advisor returns as of December 15, 2025<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/author\/20105\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:David Jagielski, CPA;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">David Jagielski, CPA<\/a> has positions in Novo Nordisk. The Motley Fool recommends Novo Nordisk. The Motley Fool has a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/legal\/fool-disclosure-policy\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:disclosure policy;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">disclosure policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-7hmkaz\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fool.com\/investing\/2025\/12\/18\/prediction-1-healthcare-giant-set-to-soar-in-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Prediction: 1 Healthcare Giant Set to Soar in 2026;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Prediction: 1 Healthcare Giant Set to Soar in 2026<\/a> was originally published by The Motley Fool<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Novo Nordisk cut its guidance and changed its CEO this past year. Amid the troubling developments, the stock&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[275],"tags":[128307,18,135,475,474,13609,19,17,6526],"class_list":["post-244743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-compounding-pharmacies","tag-eire","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-healthcare-stocks","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-novo-nordisk"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115759146197252520","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}