Maravai LifeSciences Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:MRVI)

Maravai LifeSciences Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRVI) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Stock traders acquired 1,002 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 1,791% compared to the typical volume of 53 put options.

Maravai LifeSciences Price Performance

NASDAQ MRVI opened at $3.85 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 5.29, a quick ratio of 4.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. Maravai LifeSciences has a 1 year low of $1.66 and a 1 year high of $6.05. The company has a market cap of $984.48 million, a PE ratio of -4.58 and a beta of 0.33. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $3.45 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $2.97.

Maravai LifeSciences (NASDAQ:MRVI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported ($0.08) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.06) by ($0.02). Maravai LifeSciences had a negative return on equity of 22.42% and a negative net margin of 62.88%.The firm had revenue of $41.63 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $49.02 million. On average, analysts predict that Maravai LifeSciences will post -0.24 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Bernd Brust acquired 216,212 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 13th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $3.25 per share, for a total transaction of $702,689.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer directly owned 466,771 shares in the company, valued at $1,517,005.75. This represents a 86.29% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Gregory T. Lucier bought 51,472 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 5th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $3.70 per share, for a total transaction of $190,446.40. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 106,595 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $394,401.50. This trade represents a 93.38% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders have acquired 566,771 shares of company stock valued at $1,880,244. 2.11% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Maravai LifeSciences

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its position in Maravai LifeSciences by 437.0% during the first quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 493,582 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,091,000 after buying an additional 401,673 shares during the period. Strs Ohio purchased a new position in Maravai LifeSciences during the 1st quarter valued at about $429,000. Immersion Corp increased its holdings in shares of Maravai LifeSciences by 153.3% in the 2nd quarter. Immersion Corp now owns 990,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,388,000 after purchasing an additional 599,164 shares during the period. Tejara Capital Ltd lifted its position in shares of Maravai LifeSciences by 257.8% in the second quarter. Tejara Capital Ltd now owns 1,941,449 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,679,000 after purchasing an additional 1,398,900 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can purchased a new stake in shares of Maravai LifeSciences in the second quarter worth approximately $72,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 50.25% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Maravai LifeSciences from $4.00 to $4.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 15th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Maravai LifeSciences in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $5.25.

Maravai LifeSciences Company Profile

Maravai LifeSciences Holdings, Inc (NASDAQ: MRVI) is a life sciences company specializing in the development and supply of critical reagents and services for the development and manufacture of biologic therapies. The company’s offerings support a range of applications in genomics, molecular diagnostics, vaccine development and next-generation sequencing. Maravai’s platforms address key challenges in nucleic acid production, protein detection, epigenetic analysis and reagent quality across the biopharmaceutical industry.

Through its product portfolio, which includes proprietary mRNA capping reagents, lipid nanoparticle delivery systems, synthetic oligonucleotides and high-precision assay kits, Maravai enables customers to accelerate research and streamline manufacturing workflows.