Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX) Stock Price Up 8.1% – Time to Buy?

Vaxcyte, Inc. (NASDAQ:PCVX)’s share price shot up 8.1% during trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $58.20 and last traded at $57.8850. 1,895,479 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 43% from the average session volume of 1,325,360 shares. The stock had previously closed at $53.57.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on PCVX. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $116.00 target price on shares of Vaxcyte in a research report on Monday. Leerink Partners set a $77.00 price target on Vaxcyte and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 19th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Vaxcyte in a report on Friday, January 9th. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $85.00 target price on shares of Vaxcyte in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC upped their price target on shares of Vaxcyte from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $93.83.

Vaxcyte Trading Down 0.8%

The company has a market capitalization of $7.24 billion, a P/E ratio of -11.42 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $47.83 and a 200 day moving average price of $41.24.

Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The company reported ($1.56) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($1.27) by ($0.29). During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($0.83) earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Vaxcyte, Inc. will post -4.21 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Elvia Cowan sold 11,623 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $47.92, for a total transaction of $556,974.16. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 14,534 shares in the company, valued at approximately $696,469.28. This trade represents a 44.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Harpreet S. Dhaliwal sold 9,743 shares of Vaxcyte stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $46.69, for a total value of $454,900.67. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 23,928 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,117,198.32. The trade was a 28.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 3.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Vaxcyte

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Allworth Financial LP increased its position in Vaxcyte by 148.9% during the third quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 1,222 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,000 after acquiring an additional 731 shares during the period. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Vaxcyte during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $45,000. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Vaxcyte by 22,500.0% during the third quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 1,356 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,000 after purchasing an additional 1,350 shares during the period. CWM LLC raised its position in shares of Vaxcyte by 197.3% in the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,680 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,000 after buying an additional 1,115 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. raised its position in shares of Vaxcyte by 176.7% in the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,161 shares of the company’s stock valued at $70,000 after buying an additional 1,380 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.78% of the company’s stock.

Vaxcyte Company Profile

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.