It's pushed my disastrous entry price down a bit.

I think we've seen the lows and all the negative news is already priced in.

For me, it's now a fairly valued value play with turnaround potential.📈

$NOVO B (+1,49%)

Today, $PEP (+0,3%) a significant portion has found its way into my portfolio.

Unlike $KO (+1,58%) , Pepsi doesn’t just produce beverage syrup and sell it—it also bottles it and handles the logistics. On top of that, several snack brands are part of its product portfolio.

However: Recently, the business has also struggled precisely because of $NOVO B (+1,49%) and $LLY (+2,36%) weight-loss drugs. That’s just how everything is interconnected in the markets. One person’s gain is another’s loss.

Nevertheless, I believe the time is right to buy into this “dividend king.”

Medications designed to curb cravings for sweets are not a panacea; they’re very expensive and cannot be taken long-term—they require people to actively change their diets as well. To be honest, I foresee many yo-yo effects here and consumers who will eventually return to their old habits. Not everyone will be that disciplined. And the rest?

This is where Pepsi is also stepping in—it plans to develop and launch new, healthier products to win back customers. Last but not least, the company aims to increase efficiency and reduce costs.

*AI-generated image*

Hey there, dear community✌️

Today I’m back with another company spotlight! This company has been on my watchlist for a while now, and I was actually supposed to feature it a few months ago, but due to a lack of time, I kept putting it off.

Today, it’s all about the pharmaceutical sector—more specifically, a potential replacement for my $NOVO B (+1,49%) position.

Let’s go🚀

It’s Ligand Pharma $LGND (-0,82%)

🧬 Ligand Pharmaceuticals $LGND (-0,82%) : The License to Make Money in the Biotech World

Ligand $LGND (-0,82%) is not a traditional pharmaceutical company that pours billions into its own risky clinical trials. It’s the industry’s “royalty machine.” While other biotech firms put all their eggs in one basket, Ligand operates purely as a royalty aggregator, holding the rights to technologies and contracts that make hundreds of drugs possible in the first place.

1. The Business Model: The “Toll Booth” of Drug Discovery 🛣️

Ligand $LGND (-0,82%) acts as a financier and license aggregator for the entire pharmaceutical industry.

The Mechanism: Ligand $LGND (-0,82%) offers platforms such as Captisol (a technology that makes drugs soluble and thus stable) as well as targeted capital funding for biotech companies. In return, Ligand receives milestone payments and—even more importantly—ongoing revenue shares (royalties).

The ingenious part: Ligand $LGND (-0,82%) does not bear the costs of clinical trials, regulatory approval, or marketing. The partners handle that. Ligand $LGND (-0,82%) simply collects a percentage of gross revenue once the drug is on the market.

Growth driver: “Royalty Aggregation Pipeline”: Through targeted M&A transactions (such as the acquisition of APEIRON or the takeover of the XOMA royalty portfolio), Ligand $LGND (-0,82%) access to over 100 ongoing partner projects. Instead of betting on a single drug, the company benefits from broad exposure across the entire sector.

2. Key Figures 📊

Market capitalization: approx. $5.8–6.0 billion (an established, highly profitable mid-cap).

Gross margin: Nearly 100% in the pure royalty segment (total gross margin ~88.5%, including Captisol material sales). Since there are virtually no direct manufacturing costs, the majority of licensing revenue flows directly into profit.

Diversification & Growth Drivers: Revenue comes from established blockbusters such as Kyprolis (Amgen $AMGN (+1,6%) ) as well as new growth stars such as Filspari (Travere) and Ohtuvayre (Verona Pharma / Merck ecosystem).

Balance Sheet Strength: Massive net cash cushion. With over $1.3 billion in cash and cash equivalents and investments, Ligand $LGND (-0,82%) uses this capital strategically for share buybacks or to acquire new royalty rights from smaller biotech companies.

Lean Management & Profitability: An extremely lean workforce structure with an ROIC of >24% and FCF margins exceeding 40%, as partners handle the operational work (clinical trials/sales).

3. Why is this stock exciting? 🚀

🚀1. Risk Asymmetry: If a partner’s drug fails in Phase 3, the impact on Ligand $LGND (-0,82%) only minimally, as they have over 100 other irons in the fire. In the event of success, they benefit directly from global sales.

🚀2. Beneficiary of Interest Rate Cuts: Biotech companies need capital. In an environment of falling interest rates, partners’ pipelines flourish, while cash-strapped developers are more willing to assign future royalty rights to Ligand in exchange for an upfront payment.

🚀3. Captisol Moat: Captisol technology is an industry standard. Without this excipient, many life-saving drugs could not be absorbed by the body at all—this creates high switching costs for partners.

🚀4. Operating Leverage: Since the lean holding company’s fixed costs remain virtually constant, every new approval of a partner drug leads to a disproportionately large increase in profits (operating leverage).

Additional Insider Facts (The “Deep Dive” Bonus) 💡

The Portfolio Principle: Ligand $LGND (-0,82%) operates similarly to a royalty-based pharmaceutical ETF or a specialized, publicly traded licensing fund.

Strategic Focus (Pure Play): Following the spin-off of OmniAb (2022), Ligand $LGND (-0,82%) has consistently transformed itself into a pure-play royalty aggregator. This makes the balance sheet more transparent and focused.

Approval Pipeline: Numerous FDA decisions and Phase 3 data from the partner network are expected over the next 12 to 24 months—each positive approval acts like a “free lottery ticket” for shareholders.

5. Risks ⚠️

❗️Patent Expiration: When patents for key technologies or older flagship drugs expire, new royalty rights must fill the gap.

❗️Concentration risk in the top segment: A significant portion of current revenue depends on just a few major drugs. Setbacks with these anchor drugs are felt by Ligand $LGND (-0,82%) in its top line.

❗️M&A misallocation: Ligand $LGND (-0,82%) is growing rapidly through acquisitions (such as the XOMA portfolio). If too much capital is paid for overvalued royalty rights, the overall return (ROIC) suffers.

My personal conclusion & Reaper Bonus🧐

In my search for a suitable, high-quality alternative to Novo Nordisk $NOVO B (+1,49%) , Ligand Pharmaceuticals has currently emerged as my absolute top candidate. Novo Nordisk $NOVO B (+1,49%) remains, without a doubt, an exceptional quality company in my view. I’m still holding the position for the next few quarters; after that, I’ll decide what to do with it. Ligand, $LGND (-0,82%) , on the other hand, offers the perfect counterpart here: a lean, high-margin, asset-light model, a well-stocked cash cushion, and a broad range of growth drivers that scale completely independently of the performance of any single blockbuster.

💀Jack’s Verdict:

Ligand is like the landlord of a casino. Ligand doesn’t care whether the player at the table wins or loses—they get their rent. While the biotech bros burn through their money in companies hoping for a miracle, Ligand sits back on a $1.3 billion cash mountain and lets Pfizer, Amgen, and Merck do the heavy lifting. It might not be the sexy story for the headlines, but it’s the story that reliably pays the bills in the end. If you hate the volatility of individual biotech stocks but love the sector’s margins, this is the place for you."

Rating: 🟡 WAIT AND SEE / TAKE ADVANTAGE OF DIPs

BUY-ON-DIP RANGE: $230–$240

Score: 9.0/10

@Get_Rich_or_Die_Tryin
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$NOVO B (+1,49%)

$NOVO B (+1,49%) Getting Started at Novo Nordisk

Here's the hot stuff from Novo Nordisk
$NOVO B (+1,49%) / $NOVO-B Q2 2026 Earnings Release, fresh from Bagsværd:

🚀 Top-line Performance & GLP-1 Booster

Novo Nordisk is gaining significant momentum in the second quarter of 2026 with its blockbuster obesity and diabetes drugs, posting robust revenue growth:

Adjusted total revenue: Climbed by +7% CER (at constant exchange rates) to 78.49 billion DKK.

Wegovy pill takes off: The Wegovy pill, launched in the U.S. at the beginning of the year, is rapidly expanding its market share and has surpassed the mark of 265,000 weekly prescriptions.

Growth drivers: Unabated strong demand for the GLP-1 medications Wegovy and Ozempic largely offsets price pressure in the U.S.

🔮 Profitability & One-Time Charge

Operating leverage continues to take effect in the core business, but is masked on the books by a pipeline impairment charge:

Adjusted Operating Profit: Increased by +11% CER to 33.39 billion DKK —meaning the core operating business continues to generate reliable profits.

Impairment charge: Novo recorded a non-cash special impairment charge of DKK 6.3 billion on development assets (of which DKK 4.0 billion to the obesity asset Monlunabant accounts for this amount aloneaccording to current study data).

🤖 2026 Full-Year Forecast Raised (Guidance Upgrade)

Thanks to strong demand and high sales figures in the first half of the year, management is significantly raising the bar for the full year 2026:

Forecast Upgrade (Adjusted): Adjusted revenue and profit growth for the full year 2026 is now projected to be 0% to -6% CER (a significant improvement over the previous range of -4% to -12% CER).

Unadjusted Outlook (Midpoint): On a reported basis, management now estimates full-year revenue and operating profit growth at approximately +5% and +12%, respectively, on a CER basis.

⚡ 💡 Jack’s Take

A reassuring and strong signal from the Danish pharma market leader! Demand for Wegovy and Ozempic is red-hot, and the rush for the Wegovy pill is exceeding expectations. The fact that the full-year forecast is being raised significantly despite fierce competition and price pressure demonstrates the company’s incredible operational strength. While the special write-down on monlunabant hurts the balance sheet, it doesn’t change the fact that Novo Nordisk is successfully defending its market leadership in the GLP-1 market!

With the temperatures in July, my portfolio finally started to pick up again, even if not quite as much as I’d hoped 😉. After the somewhat challenging past few months, this little breather comes at just the right time!

July Portfolio Overview:

👉🏻 July:

Starting value: 1,219,254 euros + 428 cash

End: 1,270,244 euros + 16.65 cash

Deposit: 3,200 euros

Profit: +47,378.65 euros (+3.87%)

One positive aspect of the portfolio’s performance is that the growth was actually driven almost exclusively by my other (non-gold-related) holdings, as my gold and silver holdings performed neutrally to slightly negatively this month.

PayPal ($PYPL (+0,99%) ), Accenture ($ACN), and Xiaomi ($1810 (+4,16%) ).

PayPal is one of the investments I’ve held for quite some time—currently with a cost basis of about 55 euros—and I’ve weathered a long rough patch with it. I took advantage of the price decline to consistently buy more shares, as I’m convinced of the company’s value. The takeover offer a few weeks ago at around 53 euros has at least brought PayPal back into the spotlight, and I’m glad that there are others who also see value in PayPal. At the same time, however, I’m also glad that PayPal rejected the offer. In my view, a sale shouldn’t even be considered for less than 75 euros per share—and preferably even more. The quarterly results have shown that PayPal is still growing and is fundamentally very strong. Thanks to the consistent share buybacks, more and more shares are staying with us shareholders… so I’m holding on to my shares!

Accenture and Xiaomi also contributed positively to the portfolio’s performance. However, I see this more as a technical rebound from the massive (excessive) sell-off than as a result of actual operational news—but of course, I’ll take it anyway!

At the end of the month, performance was boosted once again by Novo Nordisk ($NOVO B (+1,49%) ) and Western Union ($WU (+2,16%) ). While Novo was hit with a -10% intraday drop because a study on a potential new drug missed its targets, Western Union fell by over 20% as its quarterly results fell far short of expectations. Nevertheless, I’m holding on to both companies!

The portfolio’s performance will, however, continue to be determined primarily by the future performance of mining stocks. Given the uncertain situation surrounding Iran, I expect volatility to remain elevated going forward. At the company level, all mining stocks (K92 Mining, Equinox Gold, Santacruz Silver Mining) delivered very strong production figures. And the gold price also appears to have found a floor around $4,000 per ounce for now. But in the short term, what happens next will likely be determined by Trump’s whims 😉 ...

Let’s see how things play out! Tomorrow’s trading session looks like it’ll be another exciting one.... Deal, no deal, deal, no deal, deal.... 😅

➡️🆓: On my way toward $4 million in total assets, I’m now 41.5% of the way there.

Here’s to successful stock market trades! 😊

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