Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) Raised to “Strong-Buy” at Zacks Research

Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) was upgraded by equities researchers at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

NVAX has been the subject of a number of other reports. B. Riley Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Novavax in a report on Thursday, April 9th. BTIG Research restated a “buy” rating and issued a $19.00 price objective on shares of Novavax in a research note on Thursday, June 11th. Weiss Ratings cut Novavax from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on Novavax from $8.00 to $9.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Novavax in a research report on Thursday, March 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $13.00.

Novavax Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:NVAX opened at $9.46 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $9.28 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $8.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -16.31 and a beta of 2.43. Novavax has a 52-week low of $6.20 and a 52-week high of $11.97.

Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.06) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.25) by $0.19. Novavax had a negative net margin of 14.73% and a negative return on equity of 14.82%. The firm had revenue of $118.90 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $79.81 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.93 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 79.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Novavax will post -0.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Novavax

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Edgestream Partners L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Novavax during the 1st quarter valued at $4,234,000. California State Teachers Retirement System increased its stake in Novavax by 39.9% in the 1st quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 186,638 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,519,000 after buying an additional 53,234 shares in the last quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP raised its holdings in Novavax by 53.4% during the first quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 35,359 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $288,000 after acquiring an additional 12,304 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new stake in Novavax during the first quarter valued at about $4,049,000. Finally, Caxton Associates LLP purchased a new position in shares of Novavax in the first quarter valued at about $90,000. 53.04% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Novavax Company Profile

Novavax, Inc is a clinical-stage biotechnology company headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland, that specializes in the discovery, development and commercialization of next-generation vaccines to prevent serious infectious diseases. Founded in 1987, the company has built a platform based on recombinant nanoparticle technology and its proprietary Matrix-M™ adjuvant to enhance immune responses.

The company’s lead product is NVX-CoV2373, a protein-based vaccine designed to elicit a robust immune response against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.