BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX) Rating Increased to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report published on Saturday morning.

BNTX has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on BioNTech from $126.00 to $119.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and set a $130.00 target price on shares of BioNTech in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Sanford C. Bernstein restated a “market perform” rating on shares of BioNTech in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Berenberg Bank decreased their target price on BioNTech from $155.00 to $140.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Finally, UBS Group raised BioNTech from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $117.00 to $135.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have given a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, BioNTech currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $129.12.

BioNTech Price Performance

BNTX stock opened at $91.48 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $91.35 and a 200-day moving average of $97.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.13 billion, a P/E ratio of -15.56 and a beta of 1.32. BioNTech has a 12 month low of $79.52 and a 12 month high of $124.00. The company has a current ratio of 8.80, a quick ratio of 8.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01.

BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX) last posted its earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The company reported ($2.26) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($2.52) by $0.26. BioNTech had a negative net margin of 44.39% and a negative return on equity of 5.30%. The business had revenue of $136.71 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $207.42 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted ($1.73) EPS. BioNTech’s revenue was down 35.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that BioNTech will post -5.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BioNTech declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, May 7th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to purchase up to 4.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at BioNTech

In other news, COO Sierk Poetting sold 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owned 399,387 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,156,226.72. This represents a 11.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Corporate insiders own 19.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in BNTX. Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of BioNTech by 86.4% in the 4th quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 274 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 127 shares during the last quarter. Kennedy Capital Management LLC increased its position in BioNTech by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Kennedy Capital Management LLC now owns 21,065 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,005,000 after acquiring an additional 134 shares during the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its position in BioNTech by 4.0% during the third quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 4,290 shares of the company’s stock valued at $418,000 after acquiring an additional 165 shares during the last quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd lifted its holdings in BioNTech by 520.0% in the fourth quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 310 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 260 shares during the period. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in BioNTech by 1.0% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 28,815 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,068,000 after acquiring an additional 289 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 15.52% of the company’s stock.

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.