The Novozymes stock is listed on Nasdaq Copenhagen and included in the OMX Copenhagen CAP 25 index.
Shareholders
Novozymes' common stock consists of two types: A shares and B shares, both with a nominal value of DKK 2 per share. All A stock is held by Novo Holdings A/S, and an A share carries 10 times as many votes as a B share. At the end of 2018, Novo Holdings A/S held 25.5% of the total common stock and, through its holding of the A stock and a proportion of the B stock (21,991,400 shares), controlled 71.7% of the votes. Novo Holdings A/S is wholly owned by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, and Novozymes is therefore included in the consolidated financial statements of the Novo Nordisk Foundation.
At year-end, Novozymes had more than 55,000 shareholders, of whom 95% were private shareholders in Denmark. Fifty institutional investors, including Novo Holdings A/S, owned approximately 50% of the B shares. Roughly 70% of the B shares were held outside Denmark. Novozymes held 3.9% of the B shares, equivalent to 3.2% of the total common stock. Besides Novo Holdings A/S, Baillie Gifford & Co. held more than 5% of Novozymes’ B shares at December 31, 2018.
Stock performance
Novozymes' share price contracted by 18% during the year. For comparison, the OMXC25CAP decreased by 9% in 2018.
The average daily trading volume of Novozymes' stock in 2018 was 537,229 shares, or DKK 173 million, making it the 13th most actively traded company on Nasdaq Copenhagen, compared with 11th in 2018. At year-end, the total market cap of Novozymes was DKK 86.4 billion, split between DKK 70.8 billion for the B shares and DKK 15.6 billion for the nontraded A shares, assuming the same value per share as for the B shares. Over the past five years, Novozymes' stock has generated an average annual return (compounded) to shareholders of 8%. Total shareholder return in 2018 was -16%, adjusted for dividends.