BioNTech SE (NASDAQ:BNTX) Short Interest Up 29.6% in October

BioNTech SE (NASDAQ:BNTX) was the target of a significant growth in short interest during the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,410,000 shares, a growth of 29.6% from the September 30th total of 1,860,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 975,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.5 days. Approximately 1.0% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in BNTX. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of BioNTech by 207.5% in the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 2,583 shares of the company’s stock worth $273,000 after buying an additional 1,743 shares in the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of BioNTech in the first quarter worth approximately $201,000. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of BioNTech in the first quarter worth approximately $242,000. Legacy Wealth Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of BioNTech in the first quarter worth approximately $602,000. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in shares of BioNTech by 8.3% in the first quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 117,709 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,859,000 after buying an additional 9,013 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 15.52% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on BNTX. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of BioNTech from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $96.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of BioNTech from $97.00 to $131.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. HSBC boosted their price objective on shares of BioNTech from $97.00 to $136.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of BioNTech from $85.00 to $132.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on shares of BioNTech from $95.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $135.54.

BioNTech Stock Up 0.8 %

BNTX traded up $0.92 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $114.18. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 153,140 shares, compared to its average volume of 780,463. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 226.52 and a beta of 0.24. The company has a current ratio of 7.54, a quick ratio of 7.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. BioNTech has a 1 year low of $76.53 and a 1 year high of $131.49. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $107.73 and its 200-day moving average is $95.16.

BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX) last issued its earnings results on Monday, August 5th. The company reported ($3.36) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($2.02) by ($1.34). The firm had revenue of $128.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $134.98 million. BioNTech had a negative return on equity of 2.54% and a negative net margin of 18.69%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 23.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($0.86) EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that BioNTech will post -3.04 EPS for the current year.

About BioNTech

BioNTech SE, a biotechnology company, develops and commercializes immunotherapies for cancer and other infectious diseases. The company is developing FixVac product candidates, including BNT111, which is in Phase II clinical trial for advance melanoma; BNT112 that is in Phase I/IIa clinical trial for prostate cancer; BNT113, which is in Phase II clinical trial to treat HPV 16+ head and neck cancers; BNT114 to treat triple negative breast cancer; BNT115, which is in Phase I clinical trial in ovarian cancer; and BNT116, which is in Phase I clinical trial for non-small cell lung cancer.