Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) Downgraded to “Sell” Rating by Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note published on Saturday.

NVAX has been the topic of several other reports. HC Wainwright boosted their target price on Novavax from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Novavax from $7.00 to $6.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. B. Riley restated a “buy” rating and issued a $16.00 target price (down from $18.00) on shares of Novavax in a report on Monday, November 10th. TD Cowen cut their target price on Novavax from $8.00 to $7.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 4th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Novavax in a report on Monday, December 29th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $11.25.

Novavax Price Performance

Novavax stock opened at $8.85 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $7.45 and a 200-day simple moving average of $7.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.94 and a beta of 2.37. The company has a quick ratio of 2.24, a current ratio of 2.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.93. Novavax has a 52-week low of $5.01 and a 52-week high of $10.64.

Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($1.25) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.08) by ($0.17). Novavax had a negative return on equity of 217.02% and a net margin of 32.10%.The business had revenue of $70.45 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $55.63 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.76) earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Novavax will post -1.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp increased its position in shares of Novavax by 161.7% during the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 89,182 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $599,000 after acquiring an additional 55,110 shares during the last quarter. UBS Group AG increased its holdings in Novavax by 40.3% in the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 4,894,284 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $32,890,000 after purchasing an additional 1,405,981 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Novavax by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,470,365 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $103,961,000 after purchasing an additional 275,802 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its position in Novavax by 5.6% in the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 113,623 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $764,000 after purchasing an additional 6,034 shares during the period. Finally, Bayforest Capital Ltd acquired a new position in Novavax during the fourth quarter worth $96,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 53.04% of the company’s stock.

About Novavax

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.