Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) Raised to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) was upgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued on Friday.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on NVAX. B. Riley reissued a “buy” rating and set a $16.00 price objective (down previously from $18.00) on shares of Novavax in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Novavax in a research report on Monday, December 29th. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating and set a $19.00 price target on shares of Novavax in a report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Novavax from $7.00 to $6.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their price objective on Novavax from $8.00 to $7.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 4th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $11.25.

Novavax Stock Performance

NASDAQ:NVAX traded down $0.58 on Friday, hitting $9.17. The stock had a trading volume of 7,574,954 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,168,999. Novavax has a 52-week low of $5.01 and a 52-week high of $10.64. The stock has a market cap of $1.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.12 and a beta of 2.37. The company has a quick ratio of 2.24, a current ratio of 2.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.93. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $7.16 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $7.72.

Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($1.25) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.08) by ($0.17). The business had revenue of $70.45 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $55.63 million. Novavax had a negative return on equity of 217.02% and a net margin of 32.10%.The business’s quarterly revenue was down 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.76) EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Novavax will post -1.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Novavax

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in NVAX. Quarry LP purchased a new position in Novavax in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Novavax during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Danske Bank A S bought a new stake in shares of Novavax during the third quarter valued at approximately $64,000. State of Wyoming purchased a new position in shares of Novavax in the second quarter worth $52,000. Finally, Signaturefd LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Novavax by 47.2% in the second quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 9,739 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $61,000 after buying an additional 3,122 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 53.04% of the company’s stock.

About Novavax

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.