Analysts Set Vaxcyte, Inc. (NASDAQ:PCVX) Target Price at $86.00

Vaxcyte, Inc. (NASDAQ:PCVX) has been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the eight analysts that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have assigned a hold recommendation and five have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $86.00.

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Vaxcyte from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 12th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Vaxcyte from a “strong sell” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Vaxcyte in a research note on Monday, July 6th.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Andrew Guggenhime sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.89, for a total value of $538,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 105,176 shares in the company, valued at $5,667,934.64. This represents a 8.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Harpreet S. Dhaliwal sold 17,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.00, for a total value of $935,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 76,756 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,221,580. This trade represents a 18.13% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 121,873 shares of company stock valued at $6,671,730 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 3.30% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Vaxcyte

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of PCVX. Jupiter Topco LLC acquired a new position in shares of Vaxcyte in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,044,355,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Vaxcyte by 23.8% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 16,575,875 shares of the company’s stock worth $960,231,000 after purchasing an additional 3,188,687 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in Vaxcyte during the second quarter valued at approximately $701,520,000. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Vaxcyte by 35.9% during the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,296,333 shares of the company’s stock valued at $521,213,000 after purchasing an additional 2,981,038 shares in the last quarter. Finally, California State Teachers Retirement System increased its stake in Vaxcyte by 5,915.2% in the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 8,186,622 shares of the company’s stock valued at $475,888,000 after buying an additional 8,050,522 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.78% of the company’s stock.

Vaxcyte Stock Up 1.3%

Shares of NASDAQ PCVX opened at $61.58 on Friday. Vaxcyte has a 12 month low of $30.81 and a 12 month high of $65.00. The company has a market cap of $9.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -8.07 and a beta of 1.22. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $57.98 and a 200-day simple moving average of $56.12.

Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported ($1.97) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($2.06) by $0.09. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($1.22) earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Vaxcyte will post -7.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Vaxcyte

Vaxcyte, Inc (NASDAQ: PCVX) is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing a new generation of preventive vaccines aimed at combating serious bacterial diseases. Headquartered in San Carlos, California, Vaxcyte leverages proprietary conjugation technologies to design and manufacture multivalent vaccines targeting pathogens for which there remain significant unmet medical needs. The company’s platform is intended to streamline the production of conjugate vaccines by improving antigen presentation and broadening strain coverage compared with conventional approaches.

Vaxcyte’s lead candidate, VAX-24, is a 24-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine designed to protect against 24 serotypes of Streptococcus pneumoniae.