u/rebel-capitalist ·
Reddit — r/ValueInvesting
· February 26, 2026 at 15:34
· ⬆ 15 pts
· 💬 19 comments
| View on Reddit ↗
AI Summary
Summary
The author is admitting their investment thesis on Novo Nordisk (NVO) was wrong, citing the lack of a durable moat in the pharmaceutical industry due to intense competition and performance-based drug adoption.
The author outlines a plan to exit their losing position by waiting for the stock to hit a calculated floor, doubling down to lower their cost basis, and then selling after an expected one-time catalyst.
Quality assessment: This is a mix of personal reflection and specific financial calculation. The EPS projection is based on stated figures, but the overall plan is speculative and driven by sentiment analysis.
Score15
Comments19
Upvote %73%
▶ Full Post Text
Let’s just admit we missed the mark on NVO. The first rule of value investing is finding a moat, but pharma is proving to have almost no moat at all when you consider the competition. It’s wild that one new drug announcement can tank a stock 20% or 30%, but that’s the reality. Unlike other industries where you can rely on steady market share, pharma is purely performance-based. Doctors don't care about the brand, they only care about which drug has the highest efficacy at that moment.
My strategy for getting out of this relies on a specific thesis for 2026. Looking at the latest reports. The adjusted operating profit is expected to drop between 15% and 18%. If we take that 18% worst-case hit against the 2025 EPS of 3.49, the core business EPS falls to about 2.86. But there is a massive one-time catalyst coming: the 4.2 billion 340B reversal in Q1 2026. After a 21.5% tax hit, that adds roughly 0.74 back to the EPS.
So the math for 2026 in a worst-case scenario looks like this: the underlying business gives us 2.86, and the legal boost adds 0.74, bringing the total projected EPS to 3.60. Even though it looks like growth on paper because of the reversal, we have to ignore that boost to find the true valuation floor. If the market assigns a PE of 9 to that core 2.86, the stock could easily bottom out around 30 dollars.
I’m currently down about 25%, which is a 5k hit. My plan is to avoid catching the falling knife until it hits that projected floor. When the sentiment is this toxic, things can drop much further than people think, just like we saw with PayPal. I’m going to wait for that bottom, double down to lower my average, and then look to cut my losses in half around 2.5k once the 340B news actually hits and the narrative stabilizes.