Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) Downgraded to Sell Rating by Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of Novavax from $8.00 to $9.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Novavax from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 6th. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating and set a $19.00 price objective on shares of Novavax in a report on Thursday, June 11th. B. Riley Financial reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Novavax in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered Novavax from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $13.00.

Novavax Trading Down 1.6%

Shares of NVAX opened at $7.32 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $1.20 billion, a PE ratio of -12.62 and a beta of 2.43. Novavax has a 12 month low of $6.20 and a 12 month high of $11.97. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $9.00 and a 200-day moving average price of $8.99.

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

Institutional Trading of Novavax

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. UBS Group AG lifted its position in Novavax by 40.3% during the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 4,894,284 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $32,890,000 after purchasing an additional 1,405,981 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Novavax by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,470,365 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $103,961,000 after purchasing an additional 275,802 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its stake in shares of Novavax by 107.1% during the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 199,106 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,338,000 after buying an additional 102,945 shares during the last quarter. Monaco Asset Management SAM raised its stake in shares of Novavax by 161.3% during the 4th quarter. Monaco Asset Management SAM now owns 1,045,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $7,022,000 after buying an additional 645,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new position in shares of Novavax in the 1st quarter valued at about $2,969,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.