Renaissance Technologies LLC Has $3.18 Million Holdings in Vaxcyte, Inc. $PCVX

Renaissance Technologies LLC trimmed its position in shares of Vaxcyte, Inc. (NASDAQ:PCVX) by 16.1% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 54,734 shares of the company’s stock after selling 10,477 shares during the quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC’s holdings in Vaxcyte were worth $3,181,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in PCVX. Inceptionr LLC acquired a new position in Vaxcyte in the first quarter worth approximately $334,000. Sei Investments Co. lifted its stake in Vaxcyte by 8.4% in the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 33,545 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,949,000 after acquiring an additional 2,605 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its stake in Vaxcyte by 23.1% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 9,595 shares of the company’s stock valued at $558,000 after acquiring an additional 1,798 shares during the last quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. grew its position in Vaxcyte by 2.9% in the first quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. now owns 8,335 shares of the company’s stock worth $484,000 after acquiring an additional 231 shares in the last quarter. Finally, WCM Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Vaxcyte in the first quarter worth approximately $6,190,000. Institutional investors own 96.78% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on PCVX. Zacks Research lowered shares of Vaxcyte from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Vaxcyte in a report on Monday, July 6th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Vaxcyte from a “strong sell” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $86.00.

Vaxcyte Stock Performance

PCVX opened at $58.07 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $8.39 billion, a P/E ratio of -7.61 and a beta of 1.23. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $53.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $55.21. Vaxcyte, Inc. has a twelve month low of $29.29 and a twelve month high of $65.00.

Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported ($1.97) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($2.06) by $0.09. During the same period last year, the company posted ($1.22) EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Vaxcyte, Inc. will post -7.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Grant Pickering sold 22,461 shares of Vaxcyte stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.50, for a total value of $1,179,202.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 474,703 shares in the company, valued at $24,921,907.50. This trade represents a 4.52% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, COO Jim Wassil sold 2,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.52, for a total transaction of $111,420.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 158,494 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,848,622.88. This represents a 1.40% 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. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 120,646 shares of company stock valued at $6,570,810. 3.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Vaxcyte

Vaxcyte, Inc (NASDAQ: PCVX) is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing a new generation of preventive vaccines aimed at combating serious bacterial diseases. Headquartered in San Carlos, California, Vaxcyte leverages proprietary conjugation technologies to design and manufacture multivalent vaccines targeting pathogens for which there remain significant unmet medical needs. The company’s platform is intended to streamline the production of conjugate vaccines by improving antigen presentation and broadening strain coverage compared with conventional approaches.

Vaxcyte’s lead candidate, VAX-24, is a 24-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine designed to protect against 24 serotypes of Streptococcus pneumoniae.