Candriam S.C.A. Lowers Holdings in BioNTech SE Sponsored ADR $BNTX

Candriam S.C.A. decreased its holdings in shares of BioNTech SE Sponsored ADR (NASDAQ:BNTX) by 19.3% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 488,367 shares of the company’s stock after selling 116,549 shares during the quarter. Candriam S.C.A. owned about 0.19% of BioNTech worth $43,406,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Dodge & Cox lifted its stake in shares of BioNTech by 315.7% in the 3rd quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 3,647,091 shares of the company’s stock valued at $359,676,000 after purchasing an additional 2,769,654 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its holdings in shares of BioNTech by 43.0% during the 4th quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 1,578,094 shares of the company’s stock worth $150,235,000 after purchasing an additional 474,796 shares during the period. GSK plc purchased a new position in shares of BioNTech during the 4th quarter worth $84,711,000. Morgan Stanley increased its position in shares of BioNTech by 12.9% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 680,669 shares of the company’s stock worth $64,800,000 after purchasing an additional 77,653 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in shares of BioNTech by 344.4% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 573,356 shares of the company’s stock worth $56,544,000 after purchasing an additional 444,332 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 15.52% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Sierk Poetting sold 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $110.56, for a total value of $5,528,000.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 399,387 shares in the company, valued at $44,156,226.72. This represents a 11.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 19.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BNTX has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Berenberg Bank decreased their target price on shares of BioNTech from $155.00 to $140.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of BioNTech from $126.00 to $119.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of BioNTech in a research note on Monday. Truist Financial upgraded shares of BioNTech to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 25th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of BioNTech from $150.00 to $140.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $129.12.

BioNTech Price Performance

BNTX opened at $91.49 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $23.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -15.56 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a current ratio of 8.80, a quick ratio of 8.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. BioNTech SE Sponsored ADR has a 12-month low of $79.52 and a 12-month high of $124.00. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $91.86 and its 200 day moving average price is $97.93.

BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Saturday, February 14th. The company reported ($0.39) EPS for the quarter. The business had revenue of $1.06 billion during the quarter. BioNTech had a negative return on equity of 5.30% and a negative net margin of 44.39%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that BioNTech SE Sponsored ADR will post -5.67 earnings per share for the current year.

BioNTech declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Thursday, May 7th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to reacquire up to 4.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

BioNTech Company Profile

BioNTech SE (NASDAQ: BNTX) is a Germany-based biotechnology company that develops next-generation immunotherapies and vaccines, with a primary focus on messenger RNA (mRNA) technology. Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Mainz, BioNTech advances a platform approach to design and manufacture therapeutics across oncology, infectious diseases and other high unmet-need areas. The company is publicly traded on the NASDAQ exchange and became widely known for its rapid development and global deployment of an mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine in collaboration with Pfizer.

BioNTech’s core activities include discovery research, clinical development and manufacturing of mRNA-based medicines, personalized cancer immunotherapies, engineered cell therapies, and antibody- and protein-based therapeutics.