Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX) from a strong sell rating to a sell rating in a report published on Saturday morning.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on PCVX. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Vaxcyte in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Zacks Research downgraded Vaxcyte from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $86.00.

Vaxcyte Price Performance

Shares of PCVX stock opened at $58.29 on Friday. Vaxcyte has a one year low of $29.50 and a one year high of $65.00. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $54.04 and its 200-day moving average price is $55.35. The company has a market capitalization of $8.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.64 and a beta of 1.23.

Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported ($1.97) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($2.06) by $0.09. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($1.22) earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Vaxcyte will post -7.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Andrew Guggenhime sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.28, for a total transaction of $572,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 104,395 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,979,745.60. This represents a 8.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Grant Pickering sold 22,461 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.50, for a total value of $1,179,202.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 474,703 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,921,907.50. The trade was a 4.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 120,646 shares of company stock worth $6,570,810 over the last three months. 3.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Vaxcyte

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PCVX. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its position in shares of Vaxcyte by 23.8% in the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 16,575,875 shares of the company’s stock valued at $960,231,000 after purchasing an additional 3,188,687 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Vaxcyte during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $701,520,000. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Vaxcyte by 35.9% during the 4th 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. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Vaxcyte by 18.5% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 5,966,310 shares of the company’s stock valued at $275,286,000 after purchasing an additional 933,539 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Vaxcyte by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,980,005 shares of the company’s stock worth $229,777,000 after buying an additional 194,116 shares during the last quarter. 96.78% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.