Valneva (NASDAQ:VALN) Shares Down 3.1% – Should You Sell?

Valneva SE Sponsored ADR (NASDAQ:VALN) shares traded down 3.1% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as $9.29 and last traded at $9.24. 10,635 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 83% from the average session volume of 64,270 shares. The stock had previously closed at $9.54.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have weighed in on VALN shares. Guggenheim decreased their price objective on shares of Valneva from $14.00 to $13.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, September 8th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Valneva to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, September 6th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $14.00 price objective on Valneva and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 25th. HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $18.00 target price on shares of Valneva in a research report on Monday, August 25th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Valneva in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Valneva has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $15.00.

Valneva Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a current ratio of 1.78. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $9.77 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $8.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $803.91 million, a PE ratio of -6.49 and a beta of 1.83.

Valneva (NASDAQ:VALN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 20th. The company reported ($0.61) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.30) by ($0.31). Valneva had a negative return on equity of 59.44% and a negative net margin of 57.81%.The company had revenue of $50.51 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $48.85 million. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Valneva SE Sponsored ADR will post 0.13 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Valneva

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Frazier Life Sciences Management L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Valneva during the 2nd quarter worth $8,240,000. VSM Wealth Advisory LLC boosted its stake in Valneva by 125.0% during the third quarter. VSM Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 9,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $110,000 after buying an additional 5,000 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. acquired a new stake in shares of Valneva during the third quarter valued at about $124,000. Finally, Marex Group plc purchased a new stake in shares of Valneva in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $64,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 11.39% of the company’s stock.

Valneva Company Profile

Valneva SE, a specialty vaccine company, develops, manufactures, and commercializes prophylactic vaccines for infectious diseases with unmet needs. It offers IXIARO, an inactivated Vero cell culture-derived Japanese encephalitis vaccine indicated for active immunization against Japanese encephalitis; DUKORAL, an oral vaccine for the prevention of diarrhea caused by Vibrio cholera and/or heat-labile toxin producing enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli bacterium; IXCHIQ, a single-dose, live-attenuated vaccine for the prevention of disease caused by chikungunya virus; and VLA2001, an inactivated whole-virus COVID-19 vaccine.