Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) Shares Up 8% – Time to Buy?

Novavax, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVAX)’s stock price traded up 8% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $9.86 and last traded at $10.1010. 1,028,198 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 78% from the average session volume of 4,699,512 shares. The stock had previously closed at $9.35.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on NVAX shares. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Novavax in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Novavax from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $19.00 price target on shares of Novavax in a report on Thursday, June 11th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Novavax from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, September 12th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Novavax has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $14.00.

Novavax Stock Up 10.2%

The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $8.62 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $9.00. The company has a market cap of $1.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.78 and a beta of 2.45.

Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.32) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.38) by $0.06. Novavax had a negative net margin of 59.87% and a negative return on equity of 14.82%. The business had revenue of $56.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $52.51 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.62 earnings per share. Novavax’s revenue was down 76.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Novavax, Inc. will post -0.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in NVAX. Shah Capital Management boosted its stake in shares of Novavax by 2.0% in the first quarter. Shah Capital Management now owns 14,845,097 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $120,839,000 after buying an additional 286,317 shares during the period. Monaco Asset Management SAM raised its holdings in Novavax by 161.3% in the 4th quarter. Monaco Asset Management SAM now owns 1,045,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $7,022,000 after acquiring an additional 645,000 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in Novavax in the 2nd quarter valued at $8,004,000. Edgestream Partners L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Novavax during the 1st quarter valued at $4,234,000. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Novavax during the 1st quarter valued at $4,049,000. 53.04% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Novavax

Novavax, Inc is a biotechnology company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing vaccines for infectious diseases. The company’s vaccine platform uses recombinant nanoparticle technology and Matrix-M, its proprietary saponin-based adjuvant, which is designed to enhance and broaden immune responses.

Novavax’s primary commercial product is Nuvaxovid, a protein-based COVID-19 vaccine authorized in multiple markets. The vaccine has also been marketed as Covovax through partnerships in certain countries.