Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms “Buy” Rating for Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX)

Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by research analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a report released on Friday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $110.00 target price on the stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 94.93% from the company’s current price.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Wall Street Zen upgraded Vaxcyte from a “strong sell” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, August 8th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Vaxcyte in a report on Monday, July 6th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Vaxcyte from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 12th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $98.00.

Vaxcyte Price Performance

Shares of PCVX traded down $0.47 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $56.43. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 260,684 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,375,893. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $58.58 and a 200 day moving average price of $56.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.42 and a beta of 1.22. Vaxcyte has a fifty-two week low of $31.89 and a fifty-two week high of $65.00.

Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported ($1.97) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($2.06) by $0.09. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($1.22) earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Vaxcyte will post -7.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Jim Wassil sold 3,477 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.07, for a total value of $212,340.39. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 155,041 shares in the company, valued at $9,468,353.87. This represents a 2.19% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, insider Harpreet Dhaliwal sold 17,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.00, for a total value of $935,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 76,756 shares in the company, valued at $4,221,580. This represents a 18.13% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 65,890 shares of company stock worth $3,683,224 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 3.30% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Vaxcyte

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in PCVX. Hsbc Holdings PLC grew its holdings in Vaxcyte by 4.0% during the 2nd quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 4,151 shares of the company’s stock worth $241,000 after acquiring an additional 159 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Vaxcyte by 33.0% during the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 741 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. grew its holdings in Vaxcyte by 2.9% during the 1st quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. now owns 8,335 shares of the company’s stock worth $484,000 after acquiring an additional 231 shares during the last quarter. IFP Advisors Inc grew its holdings in Vaxcyte by 72.8% during the 2nd quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 560 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 236 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its holdings in Vaxcyte by 27.6% during the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,344 shares of the company’s stock worth $78,000 after acquiring an additional 291 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.78% of the company’s stock.

About Vaxcyte

Vaxcyte, Inc is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing vaccines to prevent serious bacterial infections. The company’s lead programs target pneumococcal disease, which can cause pneumonia, meningitis, bloodstream infections and other invasive illnesses. Vaxcyte is developing broad-spectrum pneumococcal conjugate vaccine candidates designed to protect against a wide range of bacterial serotypes.

Vaxcyte’s pipeline has included VAX-24, an investigational 24-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, and VAX-31, a next-generation candidate designed to cover 31 serotypes.