Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Acquires Shares of 364,770 Novavax, Inc. $NVAX

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new position in Novavax, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVAX) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 364,770 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,969,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. owned 0.22% of Novavax at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Novavax in the fourth quarter valued at $33,000. Quarry LP purchased a new position in shares of Novavax during the 3rd quarter valued at about $33,000. State of Wyoming purchased a new position in shares of Novavax during the 2nd quarter valued at about $52,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Novavax by 25.8% during the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 7,896 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $53,000 after buying an additional 1,617 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Danske Bank A S acquired a new position in shares of Novavax in the 3rd quarter valued at about $64,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 53.04% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on NVAX shares. Wall Street Zen upgraded Novavax from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, May 31st. TD Cowen lifted their price target on Novavax from $8.00 to $9.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $19.00 price target on shares of Novavax in a report on Thursday, June 11th. Weiss Ratings lowered Novavax from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, B. Riley Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Novavax in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Novavax currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $13.00.

Novavax Stock Up 0.6%

NASDAQ:NVAX opened at $9.42 on Wednesday. Novavax, Inc. has a 52 week low of $6.20 and a 52 week high of $11.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.55 billion, a PE ratio of -16.24 and a beta of 2.45. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $9.17 and its 200-day moving average price is $8.75.

Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $118.90 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 in the previous year, the business earned $2.93 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Novavax, Inc. will post -0.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Novavax 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.