Investors with a lot of money to spend have taken a bearish stance on Novo Nordisk (NYSE:NVO).

And retail traders should know.

We noticed this today when the trades showed up on publicly available options history that we track here at Benzinga.

Whether these are institutions or just wealthy individuals, we don't know. But when something this big happens with NVO, it often means somebody knows something is about to happen.

So how do we know what these investors just did?

Today, Benzinga's options scanner spotted 21 uncommon options trades for Novo Nordisk.

This isn't normal.

The overall sentiment of these big-money traders is split between 42% bullish and 52%, bearish.

Out of all of the special options we uncovered, 13 are puts, for a total amount of $538,028, and 8 are calls, for a total amount of $425,198.

Predicted Price Range

Taking into account the Volume and Open Interest on these contracts, it appears that whales have been targeting a price range from $80.0 to $175.0 for Novo Nordisk over the last 3 months.

Insights into Volume & Open Interest

In today's trading context, the average open interest for options of Novo Nordisk stands at 1150.07, with a total volume reaching 5,185.00. The accompanying chart delineates the progression of both call and put option volume and open interest for high-value trades in Novo Nordisk, situated within the strike price corridor from $80.0 to $175.0, throughout the last 30 days.

Novo Nordisk Call and Put Volume: 30-Day Overview

Largest Options Trades Observed:

About Novo Nordisk

With roughly one third of the global branded diabetes treatment market, Novo Nordisk is the leading provider of diabetes-care products in the world. Based in Denmark, the company manufactures and markets a variety of human and modern insulins, injectable diabetes treatments such as GLP-1 therapy, oral antidiabetic agents, and obesity treatments. Novo also has a biopharmaceutical segment (constituting roughly 10% of revenue) that specializes in protein therapies for hemophilia and other disorders.

Following our analysis of the options activities associated with Novo Nordisk, we pivot to a closer look at the company's own performance.

Present Market Standing of Novo Nordisk

• Currently trading with a volume of 2,454,258, the NVO's price is down by -0.41%, now at $127.34.
• RSI readings suggest the stock is currently may be approaching oversold.
• Anticipated earnings release is in 12 days.

Professional Analyst Ratings for Novo Nordisk

1 market experts have recently issued ratings for this stock, with a consensus target price of $160.0.

• An analyst from Cantor Fitzgerald downgraded its action to Overweight with a price target of $160.

Options are a riskier asset compared to just trading the stock, but they have higher profit potential. Serious options traders manage this risk by educating themselves daily, scaling in and out of trades, following more than one indicator, and following the markets closely.