Candriam S.C.A. Buys New Position in Vaxcyte, Inc. $PCVX

Candriam S.C.A. bought a new position in shares of Vaxcyte, Inc. (NASDAQ:PCVX) during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 315,022 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,306,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Vaxcyte by 35.9% in the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,296,333 shares of the company’s stock worth $521,213,000 after purchasing an additional 2,981,038 shares during the last quarter. Caligan Partners LP bought a new stake in Vaxcyte during the fourth quarter worth approximately $78,660,000. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. grew its position in Vaxcyte by 418.0% in the fourth quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 1,725,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $79,592,000 after buying an additional 1,392,000 shares during the last quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc grew its position in Vaxcyte by 302.6% in the fourth quarter. Polar Capital Holdings Plc now owns 1,672,783 shares of the company’s stock worth $77,182,000 after buying an additional 1,257,253 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Vaxcyte in the fourth quarter valued at $56,703,000. 96.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on PCVX. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Vaxcyte in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Wall Street Zen lowered Vaxcyte from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 28th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Vaxcyte presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $86.00.

Vaxcyte Trading Down 2.7%

PCVX stock traded down $1.62 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $58.21. The company had a trading volume of 623,958 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,844,484. The company has a 50 day moving average of $52.18 and a two-hundred day moving average of $53.92. The company has a market capitalization of $8.41 billion, a P/E ratio of -8.46 and a beta of 1.22. Vaxcyte, Inc. has a 1 year low of $29.08 and a 1 year high of $65.00.

Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported ($2.30) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($1.74) by ($0.56). During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($1.04) EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Vaxcyte, Inc. will post -7.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Vaxcyte

In other news, COO Jim Wassil sold 2,250 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.33, for a total transaction of $126,742.50. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 156,760 shares in the company, valued at $8,830,290.80. This represents a 1.42% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Grant Pickering sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.23, for a total transaction of $110,460.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 134,215 shares in the company, valued at $7,412,694.45. The trade was a 1.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 75,448 shares of company stock worth $4,091,197 over the last ninety days. 3.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Vaxcyte 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.