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

Maravai LifeSciences Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRVI) was the target of some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Investors bought 1,002 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of 1,791% compared to the average volume of 53 put options.

Maravai LifeSciences Price Performance

MRVI stock opened at $3.09 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 5.29 and a quick ratio of 4.56. The company’s 50-day moving average is $3.58 and its 200-day moving average is $3.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $790.13 million, a PE ratio of -3.68 and a beta of 0.39. Maravai LifeSciences has a 1 year low of $1.66 and a 1 year high of $5.03.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Bernd Brust purchased 216,212 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 13th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $3.25 per share, for a total transaction of $702,689.00. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer owned 466,771 shares in the company, valued at $1,517,005.75. This trade represents a 86.29% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Gregory T. Lucier purchased 48,528 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 8th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $3.67 per share, for a total transaction of $178,097.76. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 155,123 shares in the company, valued at approximately $569,301.41. This trade represents a 45.53% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have acquired a total of 566,771 shares of company stock valued at $1,880,244 in the last three months. Insiders own 2.11% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Maravai LifeSciences

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Monaco Asset Management SAM raised its holdings in Maravai LifeSciences by 315.0% during the third quarter. Monaco Asset Management SAM now owns 3,656,337 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,494,000 after buying an additional 2,775,372 shares during the last quarter. Tejara Capital Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Maravai LifeSciences by 257.8% in the 2nd quarter. Tejara Capital Ltd now owns 1,941,449 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,679,000 after acquiring an additional 1,398,900 shares during the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Maravai LifeSciences by 299.0% in the 4th quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 1,799,336 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,848,000 after acquiring an additional 1,348,405 shares in the last quarter. First Pacific Advisors LP bought a new position in Maravai LifeSciences in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,787,000. Finally, Immersion Corp boosted its stake in Maravai LifeSciences by 153.3% during 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 last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 50.25% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on MRVI. 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 research report on Monday, December 15th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Maravai LifeSciences in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target 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.