BTIG Research Reaffirms Buy Rating for Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX)

Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by equities researchers at BTIG Research in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $19.00 price objective on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock. BTIG Research’s price objective points to a potential upside of 110.41% from the stock’s current price.

NVAX has been the topic of several other research reports. HC Wainwright boosted their target price on Novavax from $11.00 to $16.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Novavax in a research note on Thursday, March 12th. B. Riley Financial reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Novavax in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Wall Street Zen raised Novavax from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, May 31st. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded Novavax from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Five investment 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, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $12.13.

Novavax Stock Performance

Shares of NVAX opened at $9.03 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $8.95 and a 200 day simple moving average of $8.54. Novavax has a 52-week low of $6.13 and a 52-week high of $11.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.48 billion, a PE ratio of -15.57 and a beta of 2.45.

Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.06) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.25) by $0.19. The business had revenue of $118.90 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $79.81 million. Novavax had a negative return on equity of 14.82% and a negative net margin of 14.73%.Novavax’s quarterly revenue was down 79.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.93 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Novavax will post -0.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Novavax

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Edgestream Partners L.P. bought a new stake in Novavax in the 1st quarter valued at $4,234,000. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its stake in Novavax by 39.9% in the 1st quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 186,638 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,519,000 after acquiring an additional 53,234 shares during the period. Quantinno Capital Management LP raised its stake in Novavax by 53.4% in the 1st quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 35,359 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $288,000 after acquiring an additional 12,304 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new stake in Novavax in the 1st quarter valued at $4,049,000. Finally, Caxton Associates LLP bought a new stake in Novavax in the 1st quarter valued at $90,000. Institutional investors own 53.04% of the company’s stock.

Novavax Company Profile

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.