Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX) Cut to “Strong Sell” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX) from a sell rating to a strong sell rating in a research report report published on Sunday.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on the stock. Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on shares of Vaxcyte from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 7th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Vaxcyte in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th. BTIG Research raised their price target on shares of Vaxcyte from $85.00 to $89.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 25th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Vaxcyte in a research note on Tuesday, March 10th. Finally, Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $116.00 price target on shares of Vaxcyte in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Vaxcyte currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $86.00.

Vaxcyte Stock Performance

PCVX stock opened at $62.76 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -11.17 and a beta of 1.38. Vaxcyte has a 1 year low of $28.09 and a 1 year high of $65.00. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $57.52 and its two-hundred day moving average is $49.94.

Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 24th. The company reported ($1.80) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.46) by ($0.34). During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($1.12) earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Vaxcyte will post -4.21 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO Jim Wassil sold 7,395 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.88, for a total value of $435,417.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 166,818 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,822,243.84. This represents a 4.24% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Elvia Cowan sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.00, for a total transaction of $180,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 28,975 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,738,500. This represents a 9.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 14,787 shares of company stock valued at $867,031. Company insiders own 3.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Vaxcyte

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of PCVX. Royal Bank of Canada raised its stake in shares of Vaxcyte by 115.2% in the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 29,471 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,113,000 after buying an additional 15,774 shares in the last quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Vaxcyte in the 1st quarter worth $219,000. Caxton Associates LLP bought a new stake in shares of Vaxcyte in the 1st quarter worth $226,000. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its stake in shares of Vaxcyte by 8.7% in the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 513,998 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,409,000 after buying an additional 41,034 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers raised its stake in shares of Vaxcyte by 13.8% in the 2nd quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 7,681 shares of the company’s stock worth $250,000 after buying an additional 932 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.78% of the company’s stock.

Vaxcyte Company Profile

Vaxcyte, Inc (NASDAQ: PCVX) is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing a new generation of preventive vaccines aimed at combating serious bacterial diseases. Headquartered in San Carlos, California, Vaxcyte leverages proprietary conjugation technologies to design and manufacture multivalent vaccines targeting pathogens for which there remain significant unmet medical needs. The company’s platform is intended to streamline the production of conjugate vaccines by improving antigen presentation and broadening strain coverage compared with conventional approaches.

Vaxcyte’s lead candidate, VAX-24, is a 24-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine designed to protect against 24 serotypes of Streptococcus pneumoniae.