Franklin Resources Inc. Lowers Stock Position in Vaxcyte, Inc. $PCVX

Franklin Resources Inc. reduced its position in shares of Vaxcyte, Inc. (NASDAQ:PCVX) by 69.6% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 939,275 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,149,757 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. owned 0.72% of Vaxcyte worth $30,536,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in PCVX. Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in Vaxcyte by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 133,562 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,342,000 after buying an additional 3,690 shares during the last quarter. Neo Ivy Capital Management bought a new position in shares of Vaxcyte in the second quarter valued at approximately $788,000. DNB Asset Management AS increased its position in shares of Vaxcyte by 70.4% during the second quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 16,755 shares of the company’s stock valued at $545,000 after acquiring an additional 6,924 shares during the last quarter. Entropy Technologies LP bought a new stake in Vaxcyte during the second quarter worth $402,000. Finally, Swiss National Bank lifted its holdings in Vaxcyte by 1.8% during the second quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 221,300 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,194,000 after acquiring an additional 4,000 shares during the period. 96.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Leerink Partners set a $77.00 target price on Vaxcyte and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 19th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Vaxcyte in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. BTIG Research reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $85.00 price objective on shares of Vaxcyte in a research report on Monday, November 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Vaxcyte in a research note on Friday, September 12th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $38.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Vaxcyte in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Vaxcyte presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $97.83.

Vaxcyte Stock Performance

Shares of Vaxcyte stock opened at $49.65 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.50 billion, a P/E ratio of -10.26 and a beta of 1.07. Vaxcyte, Inc. has a 52-week low of $27.66 and a 52-week high of $94.76. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $42.19 and its 200 day simple moving average is $36.35.

Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The company reported ($1.56) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($1.27) by ($0.29). During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.83) EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Vaxcyte, Inc. will post -4.21 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Vaxcyte

Vaxcyte, Inc, a clinical-stage biotechnology vaccine company, develops novel protein vaccines to prevent or treat bacterial infectious diseases. Its lead vaccine candidate is VAX-24, a 24-valent investigational pneumococcal conjugate vaccine for the prevention of invasive pneumococcal disease. The company also develops VAX-31 to protect against emerging strains and to help address antibiotic resistance; VAX-A1, a novel conjugate vaccine candidate to prevent disease caused by Group A Streptococcus; VAX-PG, a novel protein vaccine candidate targeting keystone pathogen responsible for periodontitis; and VAX-GI to prevent Shigella, a bacterial illness.