Forsta AP Fonden Buys New Stake in BioNTech SE Sponsored ADR $BNTX

Forsta AP Fonden bought a new stake in BioNTech SE Sponsored ADR (NASDAQ:BNTX) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 8,379 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $798,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. SBI Okasan Asset Management Co.Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of BioNTech in the 4th quarter valued at $352,000. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of BioNTech by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 120,605 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,482,000 after buying an additional 4,615 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its position in shares of BioNTech by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 321,111 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,636,000 after buying an additional 9,528 shares during the last quarter. Leonteq Securities AG purchased a new position in shares of BioNTech in the 4th quarter valued at $2,609,000. Finally, Larson Financial Group LLC grew its position in shares of BioNTech by 86.4% in the 4th quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 274 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 127 shares during the last quarter. 15.52% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Sierk Poetting sold 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $110.56, for a total transaction of $5,528,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 399,387 shares in the company, valued at $44,156,226.72. This represents a 11.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 19.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of BioNTech in a research report on Tuesday, March 17th. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on shares of BioNTech in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $96.00 target price on the stock. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of BioNTech from $125.00 to $126.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 10th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of BioNTech from $150.00 to $140.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Berenberg Bank decreased their price target on shares of BioNTech from $155.00 to $140.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $129.56.

BioNTech Stock Down 0.8%

Shares of NASDAQ:BNTX opened at $88.45 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $22.37 billion, a P/E ratio of -15.04 and a beta of 1.32. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $94.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $99.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 8.80 and a quick ratio of 8.74. BioNTech SE Sponsored ADR has a 1-year low of $79.52 and a 1-year high of $124.00.

BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Saturday, February 14th. The company reported ($0.39) earnings per share for the quarter. The business had revenue of $1.06 billion for the quarter. BioNTech had a negative return on equity of 5.30% and a negative net margin of 44.39%. Sell-side analysts predict that BioNTech SE Sponsored ADR will post -4.71 EPS for the current year.

BioNTech announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, May 7th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to buy up to 4.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

About BioNTech

BioNTech SE (NASDAQ: BNTX) is a Germany-based biotechnology company that develops next-generation immunotherapies and vaccines, with a primary focus on messenger RNA (mRNA) technology. Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Mainz, BioNTech advances a platform approach to design and manufacture therapeutics across oncology, infectious diseases and other high unmet-need areas. The company is publicly traded on the NASDAQ exchange and became widely known for its rapid development and global deployment of an mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine in collaboration with Pfizer.

BioNTech’s core activities include discovery research, clinical development and manufacturing of mRNA-based medicines, personalized cancer immunotherapies, engineered cell therapies, and antibody- and protein-based therapeutics.