Traders Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX)
by Sarita Garza · The Markets DailyNovavax, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVAX – Get Free Report) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Monday. Investors bought 21,020 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 71% compared to the average daily volume of 12,273 call options.
Institutional Investors Weigh In On Novavax
Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Hsbc Holdings PLC acquired a new position in Novavax in the 4th quarter worth approximately $394,000. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Novavax by 12.9% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 259,380 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,743,000 after buying an additional 29,704 shares during the last quarter. VARCOV Co. acquired a new position in shares of Novavax in the 4th quarter valued at about $263,000. Virtus Investment Advisers LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Novavax by 67.4% in the 4th quarter. Virtus Investment Advisers LLC now owns 104,019 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $699,000 after buying an additional 41,866 shares during the period. Finally, Oxford Asset Management LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Novavax in the fourth quarter worth about $145,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 53.04% of the company’s stock.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
A number of research firms have recently weighed in on NVAX. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Novavax from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Thursday, March 12th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Novavax from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 28th. HC Wainwright lifted their price target on shares of Novavax from $11.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 27th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Novavax in a report on Thursday, March 12th. Finally, BTIG Research restated a “buy” rating and set a $19.00 target price on shares of Novavax in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $11.88.
Read Our Latest Analysis on Novavax
Novavax Price Performance
NASDAQ:NVAX traded up $0.18 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $7.88. 1,803,064 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,105,478. Novavax has a 52-week low of $5.01 and a 52-week high of $11.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 2.65. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $9.27 and its 200-day moving average price is $8.27.
Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.66) by $0.77. Novavax had a net margin of 39.19% and a negative return on equity of 673.17%. The business had revenue of $136.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $90.26 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted ($0.51) earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 66.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Novavax will post -1.46 earnings per share for the current year.
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.