# Zealand Pharma A/S (ZEAL.CO)

Canonical: https://gigainvestors.com/s/ZEAL.CO

Analysis as of: 2026-10-16T07:40:22.170Z. Financial observations: FY2007–FY2025.

Listing currency: DKK. Reporting currency: DKK.

## Verdict

Not a wonderful business

Quality tests for Buy: not passed (profit record: fail; earnings resilience is evidence only). Published buy qualification: no.

Share price: DKK 229.40 per share; close as of 2026-10-15.

## Checklist

### understandable: fail

- 5 revenue declines in the last 10 years (informational)

- more than 2 net loss years

- negative average operating margin

- operating margin variation exceeds 0.35

- Financial history: 10 years

- Years with declining revenue: 5

- Years with a net loss: 8

- Operating margin variation: 2.73×

Chart: Operating margin; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: -0.49×

- FY2017: -1.76×

- FY2018: 17.18×

- FY2019: -14.22×

- FY2020: -2.35×

- FY2021: -3.59×

- FY2022: -7.85×

- FY2023: -1.67×

- FY2024: -20.29×

- FY2025: 0.78×

### moat: fail

- Years with nonpositive invested capital use equity plus debt and leases; positive earnings with no positive capital are shown above 100%.

- ROIC median below threshold

- ROIC worst years below threshold (more than 1 bad year allowed)

- ROIC, median of available years: -208.7%

- ROIC, second-lowest year: -791.2%

- Typical minus recent gross margin: -7.4 pp

- Typical gross margin (annual median): 87.0%

- Recent gross margin (lower of latest and 3-year median): 94.4%

- Years with nonpositive capital: 2

- Capital spending / revenue: 7.3%

- ROIC including acquisitions, ten-year median: -470.4%

Chart: ROIC excluding acquisitions; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: -31.8%

- FY2017: -52183.2%

- FY2018: 54.4%

- FY2019: -35.0%

- FY2020: -407.6%

- FY2021: -289.0%

- FY2022: -791.2%

- FY2023: -572.2%

- FY2024: -128.4%

- FY2025: >100%

### economics: pass

- Owner earnings / net income, 5-yr: 1.00×

- Cash conversion uses consolidated totals: No

- Owner earnings, five-year total: DKK 2.7B

- Net income, five-year total: DKK 2.7B

- Return on incremental invested capital: >100%

- Working capital / revenue, annual change: 2.3 pp

- Working capital / revenue, change between three-year averages: 14.1 pp

- Working capital / revenue, final three-year average: -12.9%

Chart: Annual owner cash / profit; fiscal year observations.

- FY2021: 1.02×

- FY2022: 0.92×

- FY2023: 1.03×

- FY2024: 1.01×

- FY2025: 1.00×

### management: fail

- Historical market-dollar context (not the management verdict): 2016 to 2025 (9 years)

- potential debt-funded buybacks (informational)

- buybacks leaned toward cheaper years (informational)

- ROIC first 3 years vs last 3 years: -31.8% vs -128.4%

- Per-share earnings: -6.02 to -12.05 (three-year endpoint medians)

- per-share value declined or ends nonpositive

- five-year and ten-year diluted share growth both above threshold

- Management verdict uses per-share economic progress: Yes

- Ordinary dilution, 10-year annual growth: 11.5%

- Ordinary dilution, 5-year annual growth: 10.9%

- Market cap gain: DKK 30B

- Cumulative retained earnings: DKK 1.2B

- Diluted shares, 10-year annual growth: 11.5%

- Diluted shares, 5-year annual growth: 10.9%

- $1 test, starting fiscal year: FY2016

- $1 test, ending fiscal year: FY2025

- Per-share value change: DKK -6.04

- Per-share value, starting three-year median: DKK -6.02

- Per-share value, ending three-year median: DKK -12.05

- Buybacks concentrated in cheaper years (correlation): 0.80

- Average buyback yield: 0.6%

- Buyback history: 4 years

- Debt-funded buybacks: Yes

- Acquisition spending: DKK 99M

- Cumulative net income, 10 years: DKK 1.4B

- ROIC, first three-year median: -31.8%

- ROIC, last three-year median: -128.4%

Chart: Earnings per share; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: DKK -6.02

- FY2017: DKK -8.85

- FY2018: DKK 18.85

- FY2019: DKK -15.85

- FY2020: DKK -20.09

- FY2021: DKK -23.33

- FY2022: DKK -19.39

- FY2023: DKK -12.05

- FY2024: DKK -15.27

- FY2025: DKK 91.42

### accounting: pass

- Sloan accruals: -0.5%

- Receivables to sales index (DSRI): 0.01×

- Restructuring years, last five: 0

- Stock compensation / operating cash flow: 1.8%

- Earnings backed by cash: Yes

- Operating cash / earnings: 1.01×

- Accounting red flags: 0

- Goodwill and intangibles / equity: 0.00×

Chart: Sloan accruals; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: -28.0%

- FY2017: 0.9%

- FY2018: 84.7%

- FY2019: -10.1%

- FY2020: -8.2%

- FY2021: 9.4%

- FY2022: -1.5%

- FY2023: -14.0%

- FY2024: -1.6%

- FY2025: -0.5%

## Holders

## Price story

Down 75% since Jul 2024 · "Zealand Pharma Shares Plunge After Obesity Drug Candidate Disappoints in Trial" (finance.yahoo.com, Mar 2026) · sales +14598.9%

Story as of 2026-10-16T10:00:11.422Z; price observation 2026-10-15.

- 2026-03-06: Zealand Pharma Shares Plunge After Obesity Drug Candidate Disappoints in Trial ([finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/m/ccaece0e-a0f3-3dd2-8e43-a3d5403072fa/zealand-pharma-shares-plunge.html))

### Sales · FY2024–2025

sales +14598.9%; source https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/; observed 2026-10-16.

- FY2016: DKK 235M 

- FY2017: DKK 140M 

- FY2018: DKK 38M 

- FY2019: DKK 41M 

- FY2020: DKK 353M 

- FY2021: DKK 293M 

- FY2022: DKK 104M 

- FY2023: DKK 343M 

- FY2024: DKK 63M 

- FY2025: DKK 9.2B 

### Gross margin · FY2025

gross margin 99.7%; source https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/; observed 2026-10-16.

- FY2016: 86.6% 

- FY2017: 89.5% 

- FY2019: 99.0% 

- FY2020: 74.4% 

- FY2021: 59.4% 

- FY2022: 70.5% 

- FY2023: 94.4% 

- FY2024: 87.4% 

- FY2025: 99.7% 

## Owner memo

Memo as of 2026-10-16T08:06:05.509Z.

### How it makes money

Operates in biotechnology; annual sales are DKK 9.2 billion.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:40:22.170Z); FY2025: revenue 9214860000; grossProfit 9186672000; margin = grossProfit / revenue.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); ZEAL.CO: Zealand Pharma A/S, a biotechnology company, engages in the discovery, development, and commercialization of peptide-based medicines in Denmark and the United States. The company has a portfolio of medicines focusing on gastrointestinal and metabolic diseases, and other specialty disease areas with unmet medical needs. It also provides Zegalogue, a single use syringe or autoinjector for the treatment of severe hypoglycemia; and Dasiglucagon bi-hormone artificial pancreas systems containing insulin and dasiglucagon. Its pipeline includes Dasiglucagon for treating congenital hyperinsulinism. In addition, the company developing glepaglutide, a long acting GLP-2 analog, which is in Phase III clinical trials for the treatment of short bowel syndrome. The company was incorporated in 1997 and is based in Søborg, Denmark.

### Why customers stay

Margins ranged from 87.4% to 99.7% during 2023–25.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:40:22.170Z); FY2023: grossProfit / revenue = 94.4%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:40:22.170Z); FY2024: grossProfit / revenue = 87.4%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:40:22.170Z); FY2025: grossProfit / revenue = 99.7%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:40:22.170Z); 10-year return on capital observations [[2016,-0.31821007498946385],[2017,-521.8320643431636],[2018,0.5435027039714252],[2019,-0.3496406518055483],[2020,-4.076339796032724],[2021,-2.889910131771902],[2022,-7.911810566852266],[2023,-5.72151090973523],[2024,-1.2844203744977558],[2025,51.717686047168556]]; median -2.087165253134829. ROIC follows the displayed moat series; financial companies use return on tangible equity.

### Where the cash goes

Spends 0.1% of cash earnings on expansion; paid dividends in 1 of 10 years.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:40:22.170Z); FY2018: growth capex 0; upkeep 4038000; owner earnings 581752000. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:40:22.170Z); FY2025: growth capex 5993000; upkeep 27372000; owner earnings 6434439400. Growth capex / owner earnings = 0.000931394271892591.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:40:22.170Z); Dividend observations: [[2016,0],[2017,0],[2018,0],[2019,0],[2020,0],[2021,647906000],[2022,0],[2023,0],[2024,0],[2025,0]]. Zero only counted when supported by a complete cash-flow statement.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:40:22.170Z); FY2025: cash repurchases 407170000 DKK.

### Are managers owners

Insiders own 0.5% of the company.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); ZEAL.CO SharesStats.PercentInsiders = 0.5309999999999999 percentage points; cache date 2026-10-16.

### What the price says

The price is 1.8 times annual sales.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:40:22.170Z); Closing price 229.4 DKK; reporting-to-trading FX 1; FY2025 annual sales per share 130.50897147737268; price multiple 1.757733567303247. FY2025 cash earnings/share 91.1302036197493. Closing-price date 2026-10-15.

## Monthly share-price history (DKK per share)

- 2016-10: DKK 94.00 per share

- 2016-11: DKK 110.00 per share

- 2016-12: DKK 106.50 per share

- 2017-01: DKK 116.50 per share

- 2017-02: DKK 115.00 per share

- 2017-03: DKK 112.50 per share

- 2017-04: DKK 122.00 per share

- 2017-05: DKK 119.00 per share

- 2017-06: DKK 130.50 per share

- 2017-07: DKK 125.00 per share

- 2017-08: DKK 119.00 per share

- 2017-09: DKK 121.50 per share

- 2017-10: DKK 118.00 per share

- 2017-11: DKK 88.50 per share

- 2017-12: DKK 85.00 per share

- 2018-01: DKK 101.60 per share

- 2018-02: DKK 94.70 per share

- 2018-03: DKK 93.10 per share

- 2018-04: DKK 93.20 per share

- 2018-05: DKK 96.10 per share

- 2018-06: DKK 84.00 per share

- 2018-07: DKK 95.10 per share

- 2018-08: DKK 92.50 per share

- 2018-09: DKK 105.20 per share

- 2018-10: DKK 83.90 per share

- 2018-11: DKK 82.40 per share

- 2018-12: DKK 82.40 per share

- 2019-01: DKK 94.30 per share

- 2019-02: DKK 96.90 per share

- 2019-03: DKK 118.80 per share

- 2019-04: DKK 137.10 per share

- 2019-05: DKK 137.30 per share

- 2019-06: DKK 142.70 per share

- 2019-07: DKK 151.90 per share

- 2019-08: DKK 129.50 per share

- 2019-09: DKK 174.40 per share

- 2019-10: DKK 199.60 per share

- 2019-11: DKK 208.60 per share

- 2019-12: DKK 235.40 per share

- 2020-01: DKK 244.60 per share

- 2020-02: DKK 241.60 per share

- 2020-03: DKK 233.60 per share

- 2020-04: DKK 236.20 per share

- 2020-05: DKK 264.00 per share

- 2020-06: DKK 227.40 per share

- 2020-07: DKK 218.40 per share

- 2020-08: DKK 238.00 per share

- 2020-09: DKK 241.60 per share

- 2020-10: DKK 213.20 per share

- 2020-11: DKK 238.40 per share

- 2020-12: DKK 220.60 per share

- 2021-01: DKK 197.30 per share

- 2021-02: DKK 195.20 per share

- 2021-03: DKK 200.60 per share

- 2021-04: DKK 203.00 per share

- 2021-05: DKK 184.10 per share

- 2021-06: DKK 185.20 per share

- 2021-07: DKK 190.10 per share

- 2021-08: DKK 194.00 per share

- 2021-09: DKK 185.00 per share

- 2021-10: DKK 206.00 per share

- 2021-11: DKK 136.30 per share

- 2021-12: DKK 145.10 per share

- 2022-01: DKK 128.30 per share

- 2022-02: DKK 101.90 per share

- 2022-03: DKK 104.20 per share

- 2022-04: DKK 80.40 per share

- 2022-05: DKK 98.70 per share

- 2022-06: DKK 92.80 per share

- 2022-07: DKK 131.00 per share

- 2022-08: DKK 132.20 per share

- 2022-09: DKK 173.80 per share

- 2022-10: DKK 194.20 per share

- 2022-11: DKK 201.40 per share

- 2022-12: DKK 201.40 per share

- 2023-01: DKK 212.80 per share

- 2023-02: DKK 224.40 per share

- 2023-03: DKK 214.80 per share

- 2023-04: DKK 228.20 per share

- 2023-05: DKK 266.60 per share

- 2023-06: DKK 244.60 per share

- 2023-07: DKK 235.60 per share

- 2023-08: DKK 256.80 per share

- 2023-09: DKK 305.80 per share

- 2023-10: DKK 292.80 per share

- 2023-11: DKK 336.00 per share

- 2023-12: DKK 373.20 per share

- 2024-01: DKK 472.20 per share

- 2024-02: DKK 664.00 per share

- 2024-03: DKK 681.50 per share

- 2024-04: DKK 633.00 per share

- 2024-05: DKK 639.50 per share

- 2024-06: DKK 892.50 per share

- 2024-07: DKK 930.00 per share

- 2024-08: DKK 886.50 per share

- 2024-09: DKK 813.00 per share

- 2024-10: DKK 790.50 per share

- 2024-11: DKK 730.00 per share

- 2024-12: DKK 715.50 per share

- 2025-01: DKK 735.50 per share

- 2025-02: DKK 663.00 per share

- 2025-03: DKK 517.00 per share

- 2025-04: DKK 461.60 per share

- 2025-05: DKK 453.50 per share

- 2025-06: DKK 354.70 per share

- 2025-07: DKK 343.70 per share

- 2025-08: DKK 437.40 per share

- 2025-09: DKK 461.10 per share

- 2025-10: DKK 512.60 per share

- 2025-11: DKK 516.40 per share

- 2025-12: DKK 466.40 per share

- 2026-01: DKK 420.10 per share

- 2026-02: DKK 363.80 per share

- 2026-03: DKK 295.00 per share

- 2026-04: DKK 299.40 per share

- 2026-05: DKK 324.90 per share

- 2026-06: DKK 289.60 per share

- 2026-07: DKK 304.00 per share

- 2026-08: DKK 300.00 per share

- 2026-09: DKK 271.10 per share

- 2026-10: DKK 231.30 per share

## Annual estimated value (DKK per share)

Historical values use today's bond yield for every fiscal year

Historical values use today's FX rate into trading currency for every fiscal year

Historical values use current restated fundamentals and current commodity classification; they are not point-in-time estimates

## Sources

Estimates depend on assumptions and are not guarantees or investment advice. Underlying data remains subject to its source licenses; public reading does not grant bulk redistribution rights.