Deutsche Bank Turns Bearish on Novo Nordisk With First Sell Rating After 70% Stock Collapse

Novo Nordisk (NYSE: NVO), the Danish pharmaceutical group behind Ozempic and Wegovy, was cut to Sell from Hold by Deutsche Bank earlier today, the first major bank to make the call since the stock’s collapse of roughly 70% from its 2025 peak.

The US-listed shares fell 3.02% to $47.19 in early trade, down from Wednesday’s close of $48.66 and well below the 52-week high of $61.11 hit earlier this year, though still above the 52-week low of $34.15. The stock has fallen from a 2025 peak above $87 to little more than half that level.

Deutsche Bank analyst Emmanuel Papadakis lowered his rating on Novo Nordisk to Sell and cut his price target by 9% to DKK 265 in a note published earlier today. MarketWatch reported that Wall Street had stayed reluctant to issue an outright Sell call on the stock despite its steep decline, making Papadakis’s note the most bearish yet issued by a major bank.

The downgrade lands against a broader industry backdrop in which Novo has been losing ground to rival Eli Lilly in the GLP-1 obesity-drug market, a competitive dynamic that has weighed on sentiment across the sector. Rather than responding to a single news event, the call signals that at least one major house now sees the stock’s decline as incomplete, a point UK retail holders of NVO via US-listed shares or funds should weigh before treating the size of the drop alone as reason to buy in.

The core risk for holders is that Novo’s competitive position in the GLP-1 market keeps eroding, a dynamic Deutsche Bank’s downgrade suggests is still unresolved rather than corrected by the shares’ decline so far.