Jim Cramer put the obvious question to Novo Nordisk's (NVO) chief executive: Why does the stock keep falling when the news keeps getting better? Mike Doustdar had a surprising response: “Coming back to your comment about the stock price, the stock market is always right, but with a bit of a time difference,” he said. “It's fair.” Executives almost always answer that the market has it wrong, but Doustdar instead says patience on timing is key.
The facts he was conceding sat awkwardly together. Novo beat expectations and raised its outlook on Aug. 5; the shares fell on the day. The company is in the middle of what Doustdar elsewhere in the same interview called the best product launch in pharmaceutical history, and full-year sales guidance is still for a decline, improved three times this year and negative at every revision. A reader could reasonably assume one of those four things must be untrue. All four are true at once.
