Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) Lowered to “Sell” Rating by Wall Street Zen

Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) was downgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report released on Saturday.

NVAX has been the subject of a number of other reports. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Novavax from $8.00 to $9.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. B. Riley Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Novavax in a report on Thursday, April 9th. HC Wainwright increased their target price on shares of Novavax from $11.00 to $16.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 27th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Novavax in a report on Thursday, March 12th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut shares of Novavax from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Five investment 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. According to MarketBeat, Novavax has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $12.13.

Novavax Stock Up 2.6%

NASDAQ NVAX opened at $9.21 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.51 billion, a P/E ratio of -15.88 and a beta of 2.37. Novavax has a 52-week low of $6.13 and a 52-week high of $11.97. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $8.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $8.26.

Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.06) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.25) by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $118.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $79.81 million. Novavax had a negative net margin of 14.73% and a negative return on equity of 14.82%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 79.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.93 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Novavax will post -0.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Novavax

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NVAX. Shah Capital Management increased its stake in Novavax by 23.3% in the fourth quarter. Shah Capital Management now owns 14,558,780 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $97,835,000 after purchasing an additional 2,747,000 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in Novavax by 32.3% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,523,646 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $63,999,000 after purchasing an additional 2,326,927 shares during the last quarter. UBS Group AG increased its stake in Novavax by 40.3% in 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 last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH increased its stake in Novavax by 162.6% in the third quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 1,409,734 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $12,222,000 after purchasing an additional 872,987 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Farallon Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Novavax by 4,775.0% during the 3rd quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 780,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $6,763,000 after buying an additional 764,000 shares during the period. 53.04% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Novavax Company Profile

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.