Wall Street Zen Upgrades Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) to Hold

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

NVAX has been the topic of a number of other research reports. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of Novavax from $8.00 to $9.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. HC Wainwright upped their price target on shares of Novavax from $11.00 to $16.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. B. Riley Financial reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Novavax in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Novavax from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Novavax in a research note on Thursday, March 12th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $12.13.

Novavax Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NVAX opened at $10.97 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -18.91 and a beta of 2.37. The business has a 50-day moving average of $8.86 and a 200-day moving average of $8.36. Novavax has a fifty-two week low of $6.13 and a fifty-two week high of $11.97.

Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.06) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.25) by $0.19. The company had revenue of $118.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $79.81 million. Novavax had a negative return on equity of 14.82% and a negative net margin of 14.73%.Novavax’s revenue for the quarter was down 79.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.93 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Novavax will post -0.19 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Novavax

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Shah Capital Management lifted its stake in Novavax by 23.3% in the 4th 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. Farallon Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Novavax by 4,775.0% in the 3rd quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 780,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $6,763,000 after purchasing an additional 764,000 shares during the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH lifted its stake in Novavax by 162.6% in the 3rd 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. UBS Group AG lifted its stake in Novavax by 40.3% in the 4th 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. Finally, Monaco Asset Management SAM lifted its stake in Novavax by 73.9% in the 3rd quarter. Monaco Asset Management SAM now owns 400,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $3,468,000 after purchasing an additional 170,000 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.