Wegovy Use Among U.S. Teens Jumps 50% in 2024: Truveta
Novo Nordisk (NVO, Financials) is seeing more U.S. teens start treatment with its GLP-1 drug Wegovy; new data shows a 50% increase in prescriptions in 2024. According to health tech firm Truveta, the average rate climbed to 14.8 per 100,000 adolescents; that's up from 9.9 in 2023the first full year Wegovy was available for kids aged 12 and older.
Warning! GuruFocus has detected 6 Warning Signs with BA.
The data, drawn from 1.3 million patients across 30 health systems, points to growing comfort among doctors and families. Still, use remains limited; roughly 8 million U.S. teens live with obesity, but only a fraction are getting this class of medication.
At Nemours Children's Hospital in Delaware, about 25% of patients in its obesity program were prescribed a GLP-1 in 2024; that figure nearly doubled from the year prior. On average, those teens lost 15 pounds (6.8 kg) within six to 12 months; some lost more with longer use.
Access, however, remains uneven. Many families face insurance rejections; others worry about safety over the long run. U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has criticized widespread pediatric use of these drugs; his report cited concerns over metabolism and development.
Novo Nordisk said its clinical trials showed no impact on teen growth or puberty; Eli Lilly (LLY, Financials), which is running late-stage trials for its Zepbound drug in adolescents, echoed that viewstating no signs of growth or metabolic harm so far.
Why it matters: The teen uptick signals rising demand for long-term obesity care; however, pushback from regulators, slow insurance uptake, and the need for more data could stall momentum.
This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
40 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Ninety One Ltd (JSE:NY1) (FY 2025) Earnings Call Highlights: Strategic Growth Amidst Financial ...
Release Date: June 04, 2025 For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. Ninety One Ltd (JSE:NY1) recorded positive net flows in the second half of the year, reversing the negative trend from the first half. Assets under management increased by 4% to 130.8 billion pounds, indicating growth in the company's asset base. The company has opened two new offices in the Middle East, expanding its presence and activities in the region. The Sunamm transaction is expected to grow assets under management by approximately 17 billion pounds and offers preferred access to their distribution network. Ninety One Ltd (JSE:NY1) is investing in AI and technology to enhance efficiency and effectiveness, positioning itself as a future-ready active investment manager. Net outflows for the year were 4.9 billion pounds, although this was an improvement from the previous year's 9.4 billion. Basic earnings per share declined by 7% to 17.2% per share, and adjusted earnings per share declined by 3% to 15.5%. The full-year dividend decreased by 1% to 12.2%, reflecting a challenging financial environment. The adjusted operating profit margin decreased from 32% to 31.2%, indicating pressure on profitability. The effective tax rate increased to 26.5% from 24.4% in the prior year, driven by non-deductible expenses and new global minimum tax rules. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 7 Warning Signs with JSE:NY1. Q: Hubert Lam from Bank of America asked about the positive flow trends in the second half and whether this indicates a turning point, particularly regarding the rotation from the US into more international and emerging market products. A: Unidentified_1 responded that there are two trends: existing clients are re-weighting portfolios, and there's increased interest in the emerging market complex. However, it's unclear if this is a structural growth or just a rebalancing. The US's significant share of global assets means even slight shifts can have a large impact. The weakening dollar policy might also influence re-weighting towards non-dollar revenue streams. The respondent hopes to provide more concrete feedback at the half-year mark. Q: Hubert Lam inquired about the operating margin, which came in at 31.2%, and whether this is considered the floor. A: Unidentified_1 stated that they do not target a specific operating margin but aim to maintain a range due to market volatility. Unidentified_2 added that while they don't set a floor, they have enough levers to keep it within the historical range, which is comfortable for them. Q: Hubert Lam asked for client feedback on the Sanlam deal from both sides. A: Unidentified_1 explained that due to competition commission realities, they haven't interacted with third-party clients but sense that their client base understands the logic of the deal. The relationship with Sunlam is seen as complementary, providing a stronger provider. The arrangement is perceived positively, and they expect to gain access to excellent talent, which will benefit the business long-term. Q: David McCann from Deutsche Bank asked about the significant swing in flows from the Asia Pacific region in the second half. A: Unidentified_1 attributed this to the growing economic gravity in the East, with institutional heft increasing as savings pools grow. Existing clients have started to upweight earlier, based on good past performance and service delivery. The excitement about new offices in the Middle East hasn't yet reflected in the top line but is expected to contribute later. Q: Raheem Karim from Investec asked about the strong pipeline in the Americas and whether the investment is beginning to turn. A: Unidentified_1 confirmed that the investment is cash generative and focused on the right client base, which is interested in their areas of expertise, such as international and emerging markets. They have built a strong track record and are now in a position to compete effectively. The team is excited about the opportunities, although conversion is still needed. For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Could This Be a Sign Warren Buffett May Be Unloading 1 of His Biggest Stock Holdings?
Berkshire Hathaway is no longer going to have a position on Kraft's board of directors. This comes as the food company is evaluating strategic transactions. Kraft has struggled to grow its business, and its future prospects don't look all that great. 10 stocks we like better than Kraft Heinz › Warren Buffett's company, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A)(NYSE: BRK.B), invests in many top blue chip stocks. They are mainly centered around financial services, consumer goods, and oil and gas. And while there may be some changes in smaller positions within Berkshire's holdings, the top 10 stocks don't normally see a lot of turnover. But with Buffett stepping down as CEO this year, there could be some more significant changes on the way. And there's a move that Berkshire recently made that stood out to me, one that could signify the end of its position in one of its largest holdings: Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ: KHC). In a press release dated May 20, Kraft announced that its board and leadership team are looking at "potential strategic transactions to unlock shareholder value." It also noted that Berkshire Hathaway's two representatives on the board -- Timothy Kenesey and Alicia Knapp -- would be stepping down. Thus, at a critical time in Kraft's business, when the company is struggling to grow (its sales were down 3% last year) and possibly looking at making significant changes, Berkshire appears to be distancing itself from the consumer goods company. It's not hard to see why Kraft may need to make a move. Its top line has struggled to grow in recent years, and as the government focuses on healthier eating options and people are using GLP-1 weight loss drugs to shed pounds and curb their appetites, the company's growth prospects aren't looking so great. If Berkshire isn't involved in these critical strategic decisions, the writing may be on the wall for its investment in Kraft. For years, it hasn't made a whole lot of sense as to why Kraft remains one of Berkshire's top holdings. It makes up just over 3% of Berkshire's overall portfolio, making it the eighth-largest position, behind Occidental Petroleum, Moody's, and Chevron. Kraft pays a dividend, which Buffett likes, but it has been a bad investment over the years, even despite the payout. In five years, the stock has declined by 12% and when you include its dividend, the total return is only 10%. That is a pitiful performance when you compare it against the S&P 500, which has more than doubled in value over that time frame when including dividends. For a forward-looking investor such as Buffett, the future doesn't look all that promising for Kraft either, whose iconic Mac & Cheese brand has become associated with unhealthy eating habits due to its processed ingredients and high sodium. Given all the question marks around the business, it wouldn't surprise me in the least to see Berkshire finally exit its position in Kraft. Berkshire and 3G Capital (which has since sold its stake) bought Heinz back in 2013, a few years before it merged with Kraft. If Berkshire sells its stake in Kraft, that could send the stock into a deeper free fall. But regardless of whether that happens or not, this is a stock that you may be better off avoiding. Simply because an investment is or isn't in Buffett's portfolio shouldn't determine whether you buy or sell it. Ultimately, it's important to make your own investment decisions based on your own goals and objectives, as they will be different from Buffett's and Berkshire's. And if you're looking at where Kraft's business is heading, the outlook doesn't look terribly promising. Even the stock's 6% yield may not prove to be safe in the long run, especially if its sales and profits decline. Without more compelling growth prospects, this stock may continue to be a bad buy for the foreseeable future. Before you buy stock in Kraft Heinz, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Kraft Heinz wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $656,825!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $865,550!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 994% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 172% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 2, 2025 David Jagielski has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Berkshire Hathaway, Chevron, and Moody's. The Motley Fool recommends Kraft Heinz and Occidental Petroleum. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Could This Be a Sign Warren Buffett May Be Unloading 1 of His Biggest Stock Holdings? was originally published by The Motley Fool
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Oracle: The ambition to grow into Cloud Infrastructure Giant
Investment Thesis Oracle can put its cloud infrastructure forward as a different, technical approach dedicated to actual problems of enterprises. Whereas other companies are trying to save money predominantly through sharing resources, Oracle's bare metal architecture actually provides the consistent performance companies require for their mission-critical applications. This technical advantage leads to both the power to set the price and customer loyalty, especially as companies migrate their most critical workloads to the cloud. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 7 Warning Signs with ORCL. Investment Upsides The Foundation: Autonomous Database Technology as the Game Changer Let's start with perhaps the most defining achievement of Oracle: the Autonomous Database. To flag the importance of the Autonomous Database it is imperative to know how conventional databases would operate. Database administrators spend numerous working hours just tuning the database performance up, applying security patches, and troubleshooting every issuequite similar to a pilot adjusting controls nonstop during a flight. Oracle's Autonomous Database is a genuine departure from the previous paradigm since it embeds the artificial intelligence even directly into the database engine. Imagine it like a shift from the manually operated machine to the fully automated self-drainer. The database itself goes on monitoring its performance by making adjustments in the memory allocation, optimizing the paths for the query execution as well as even installing security patches without any human supervision. This is not only automation but intelligent automation that learns from a given number of runs and becomes more efficient over time. The algorithms of the underlying machine learning constantly analyze the database operations reporting their findings to the administrator who in turn can apply the essential changes that he or she might have missed. The wizardry in technical ingenuity lies in the manner in which Oracle brought together years of expertise in database optimization and machine learning; the algorithms can be trained to predict performance problems and then, in a preventive way, deal with them before the application is affected. It results in a positive feedback loop: several organizations that adopt a particular new technology are then mutually more beneficial to each of them. As a result, Oracle benefits with a stable competitive advantage which is extremely hard for rival companies to repeat as it demands both the mastery of databases and the advanced machine learning competences. The impact on EPS In the conventional scenario, these databases need Database Administrators (DBAs) - a class of professionals that are highly skilled, tune performance, manage storage, handle backups, and optimize queries. A DBA is like a top-notch mechanic that specializes in keeping a race car in a high state of performance. Currently, Oracle is altering the idea of a database with their "Autonomous Database" technology, which is self-governing databases that use artificial intelligence to work many of the DBA functions without being attended by a person. This idea is similar to substituting a top-level mechanic with a suitable engineering system to find and fix faults without external support. In order to figure out how much the earnings impact of autonomous database technology would be, it is necessary to understand Oracle's customer base and usually existing costs of a DBA. Oracle has approximately 430,000 customers spread all around the world but not all of those customers are using the database products. Focusing on their database customers area, it is very likely that about 200,000-250,000 organizations of different sizes are part of this group. Here we have an instance of an interesting math problem. A proficient DBA generally costs a business around $80,000-$150,000 annually in salary, plus pricey benefits, thus making the overall cost reach approximately $120,000-$200,000 yearly. More extensive companies very often have a team of DBAs working in the same environment such as 5 to 10 members or maybe even more with quite a complex arrangement. Let's start with a conservative assumption. For the sake of the imagination, let Oracle just get some of the cost savings through the rise of the subscription fees for their autonomous database services. In addition to that, they may charge an extra 30,000 dollars a year referring to perhaps 25% of one DBA's total cost and if they do this with even 100,000 customers, which is hypothetical, the amount will generat3 billion dollars. Oracle's software charges very high gross margins usually 80% or more for the reason that the direct cost of customers being served is very little hence most of the additional revenue goes directly to the operating income. The assumption here is 3 billion additional revenues are made owing to the above-margin theory that takes 80% of its cost giving 2.4 billion operating income more. Oracle's share capital is nearly 2.7 billion as they have such a lot of outstanding shares. So $2.4 billion divided by 2.7 billion shares forms exactly $0.89 per share's additional earnings. But this assessment shows you should regard some crucial details. The process of transition is not that fast which in reality means the shift will be made gradually for years with the involvement of the customers applying autonomous database technology. The true strategic value may be quite higher than the direct calculation implies. By removing the DBA requirement, Oracle is propelling their database solutions to be more alluring to small businesses that were not able to previous lately afford the hiring of database professionals. Thus this could be the increment in their total market potential. Cloud Infrastructure: Rethinking the Architecture from the Ground Up The Oracle cloud infrastructure is a demonstration of how a breakthrough in basic premises rethink can create advantages. Most of the cloud providers use a virtualization layer that lets physical resources be shared between several clients; it is like an apartment building where tenants enter utilities. Practically, it is a cost-efficient but on the flip side, it can lead to performance inconsistencies, especially with enterprise applications demanding too much. Instead, Oracle offered a bare metal server as a solution by means of giving clients the opportunity to get a direct path to the physical hardware resources. This path appears to be like a rewire of branching into individual houses to each customer instead of apartments. The only difference here is that the dedicated hardware is housed in each customer's premises and runs at the same performance level, thus obviating the problem of the shared system. This choice of architecture is of great use since it deals with database workloads that are resource contention and network latency sensitive. The network infrastructure includes Remote Direct Memory Access technology, which makes it possible for servers to communicate with each other by directly accessing their memories and not going through traditional network protocols. Go ahead and visualize data centers with FBI express highways, with the prescribed mode transporting data only to specific destinations, hence, radically speeding up the data flow. There is a marketing implication of thisthat they are not only building greater efficiency in their own business but also creating a differentiated offering in the general market. In-Memory Computing: Transforming Data Processing Speed Oracle's in-memory database technology solves a pervasive problem in traditional computing: the vast discrepancy in speed between memory and storage. Traditional databases organize the data on disks, and even though they are very reliable, they operate thousands of times slower than memory. One can liken it to the difference between a library's interlibrary loan and a book that is on a shelf right next to you, in other words, the difference between borrowing a book from a library in your town and taking a cab to the library across town. Oracle's game plan is among other things, made up of getting the necessary data in front of users in seconds rather than hours, through the right use of high-speed memory. The new tech is deeply rooted in advanced compression algorithms that think of themselves as separate memory banks with a shared workload while still functioning fully. This format of specifying data types works like a better filing system which organizes information more accessibly but without any missing detail. The system continuously learns the data usage patterns and it dynamically recalibrates and optimizes the memory allocation according to the needs of the business. The algorithms create cash flow estimates by analyzing patterns in queries and data access frequencies before the demand arises, always securing instant availability. This basically sets up a system that not only optimizes itself automatically in the beginning but also leads to more of that intelligent behavior down the road, much like the librarian mastering the art of really knowing what books will be checked out the most. Understanding the predictive system in depth: The better estimating of cash flows goes hand in hand with the establishment of more reliable patterns of data that influence access. When the system knows what the financial situation looks like with a higher confidence, it can make better predictions about which supporting data you will need. Cash flow projections might say that we will be short by 3 months; the system might then proactively load information about available lines of credit, pending receivables to be factored, or historical data on similar situations. The reliability of cash flow estimates also affects the robustness of the prediction system as well. More correct financial forecasts lead to users behaving in a more predictable manner. When the users get to believe the cash flow data they stick to a more predictable analytical workflow that makes the system easily predict their next data need. Think of a practical example: if your cash flow model, for instance, shows a considerable amount of income from a major customer, then you might want to see the investment opportunities, debt payment schedules, or expansion project costs. The system would auto-load this relevant financial information. Alternatively, if cash flow estimates reveal the potential problems, it is likely that you would want to check accounts payable aging, credit facilities as well as cost reduction scenarios. Investment Downsides The Cloud Infrastructure Battleground: The most serious challenge for Oracle arises from the confrontation with the cloud-infrastructure behemoths, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform. Just envisage this situation as a race where Oracle has started running several years behind its fellow runners who have created massive backlogs. AWS initiated the premise of the cloud and has since become the mammoth scaled with the superior infrastructure that is both developed over time and is laid out across the globe. Microsoft Azure exploits deep enterprise relationships along with the integration with Windows that has possessed corporate offices for decades. The scale challenge looms as the biggest contender. Imagine a situation where AWS distributes infrastructural costs across the millions of customers they have as a result of which they are achieving economies of scale that smaller competitors are finding tough to catch up with. It is akin to large factories being able to produce goods at a lower cost per unit than smaller factories, due to their size. Meanwhile, Google Cloud has the advanced artificial intelligence and the global network traffic originally built for consumer internet services that bring more complexity. Nevertheless, Oracle tackles these challenges with a radically different technological approach which desks configurally twisted ineffective into strengths of competitive advantage. Oracle is not just aiming for scale and cost efficiency but is switching their focus to delivering reliable performance that meets the specific needs of the enterprise. The bare metal cloud of theirs also is a provider of dedicated hardware resources thus abolishing the performance variability that is inevitable in shared virtualized environments. Just like a private highway provides a guarantee of the time needed for travel, which might be more expensive but is worth the cost. Oracle's cloud infrastructure is built on the latest networking technology that combines Remote Direct Memory Access capabilities and it has zero-latency communication between servers. This technology is highly tailored for high-performance workloads, where fractions of a second count, as is the case in the financial services' trading systems or analytics applications. Instead of competing in general-purpose computing oracle's unique approach allows it to establish itself in performance-critical enterprise markets. Competition Database Competition: Defending the Crown Jewel The database sector illustrates a similar multi-directional competitive terrain where Oracle simultaneously faces challenges from various rivals. Traditional companies, such as IBM DB2 and Microsoft SQL Server, are vying for enterprise workloads even as fresh entrants like Amazon Aurora, Google BigQuery, and many NoSQL databases are threatening other segments of Oracle's supremacy. Amazon Aurora is one of the most direct threats on the technological front to Oracle's database supremacy. Aurora promises MySQL and PostgreSQL compatibility at a very low cost and with a much better performance than "traditional" databases in the cloud. Built from the ground up for cloud computing and it manages the storage and compute resources according to demand. Google BigQuery's goal is a different one, analytics, and data warehousing of a serverless architecture that frees infrastructure management entirely. The user submits the query and gets charged for the data processed, without worrying about the underlying hardware or software configuration. This is an attractive proposition to corporations, which seek to reduce the operational complexity. Oracle has a comeback to the database rivalry that is to leverage the innovation of the Autonomous Database that stands for a fundamental rethinking of database management. Instead of solely soaring cyclical overheads or absorbing capital as an expense, it is Android that has the brain of the database engine. The Intelligent featured systems built with Oracle have historically been a strong suit only in the defense against competition but this time the new approach saves the part of the code. Their fundamental philosophy lies in a system capable of handling the workload by itself, automatically, that will increase the value from any other application. The technological brilliance of this approach lies in how it transforms Oracle's decades of database optimization expertise into machine learning algorithms. These algorithms continuously analyze database operations, identifying optimal configurations that even experienced administrators might miss. As more organizations use the technology, the collective intelligence grows stronger, creating a network effect that benefits all users while strengthening Oracle's competitive position. The Cloud Transformation Risk: Navigating a Fundamental Business Model Shift Oracle's highest risk factor is actually the ongoing transformation from a traditional software licensing model to a cloud-based subscription business. Think of this scenario as a restaurant that has been serving customers who dine in for decades and needs to suddenly become mainly a delivery service. It does not just change who the customers are, how the restaurant will operate, and the revenue model, but all of this happens in a completely new way. Financial considerations are really what the transition brings insecurities in the beginning. Traditional software licenses bring in the money with a few of very big upfront paymentsimagine you get an entire year of salary all at once in January. Cloud subscriptions, as in the previous year's credit appears many months after revenue is actually generated, spread that income across an entire year or more. Due to this, Oracle is perceived to have a "revenue recognition headwind," that is, total revenue could slump even when there is business growth. During the transforming period Oracle has to keep profitability up and at the same time invest massively in the cloud infrastructure, this performance creates a delicate threading act which may drain financial resources. The risk of customer behavior adds to the complexity of the situation. Unlike the customers who already cloud model based decisions to Oracle's cloud platform as they are uncertain. Potential customers weigh against the competition with the possibility of choosing companies that are more honest about their production capabilities and how they will be. So do they feel insecure in the period when Oracle will eat the market share from other established cloud providers and also divert its own business from traditional ones Valuation Oracle, Inc. has a P/E ratio of 39, which can be referred to as a middle range. According to its earnings multiple, Oracle is significantly lower than high-tech companies like ServiceNow (136) and Palo Alto Networks (106), but stands higher than a well-established tech firm Microsoft (35.6). This means investors have a moderate perception of Oracle's growthbetter than old-school enterprise software firms but not able to reach the standard of explosive growth pure-play cloud providers expect. The P/S ratio of 8.5 also tells the same narrative, implying that it has reasonable revenue multiple compared to ServiceNow's 18.2 or Palo Alto's 14.8. On top of that, Oracle's EV/EBITDA of 22.9 is almost equal to Microsoft's 22.7, signifying operations efficiency and cash generation in a similar way. These measures epitomize the transitional situation of Oracleinvestors appreciate the significant cloud transformation progress and the solid fundamentals of the company, yet it is not valued at the premium multiples that pure-play cloud firms command. If Oracle executes its cloud strategy effectively, experiencing an uptick in growth and with it the problem of market skepticism about the transformation timeline, the company will create possible gains. The situation is both a chance and a challenge for Oracle to further develop with the ongoing transformation. Guru Holdings Donald Morgan's 10.84% share in the company (worth $93.27M) which remains unchanged in recent activity suggests that he has full faith in Oracle's long-term transformation. However, his +268.5% gain demonstrates the fact that he bought shares much earlier, perhaps when the cloud transition increased in speed. His passive attitude is evidence of the trust he has in the management plan. Stan Moss has a 5.54% stake ($1.76B) with a recent 17.58% increase (1.89M shares) shows that he is engaged in active accumulation, which is a sign of Polen Capital considers Oracle to be undervalued right now. His average return of +7.5% suggests he entered more recently, possibly betting on the cloud transformation's success. Recommendation The whole investment scheme is based on the successful implementation of this technological transformation while at the same time keeping its database market leadership. The combination of the two will allow the firm to sit on top of the significant value created by the enterprises going for digital transformation in a faster way. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Sign in to access your portfolio
