Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) Stock Rating Upgraded by Bank of America

Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) was upgraded by investment analysts at Bank of America from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage presently has a $12.00 target price on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock, up from their prior target price of $4.00. Bank of America‘s target price points to a potential upside of 33.63% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other research firms also recently commented on NVAX. HC Wainwright reduced their price objective on Novavax from $35.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Novavax from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Novavax has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $15.33.

Novavax Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:NVAX traded up $4.51 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $8.98. 155,097,398 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,707,889. Novavax has a 1 year low of $3.53 and a 1 year high of $11.00. The company has a market cap of $1.26 billion, a P/E ratio of -1.58 and a beta of 1.63. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $4.66 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $4.98.

Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 28th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($1.44) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.49) by ($0.95). The company had revenue of $291.34 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $310.96 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($2.28) earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 18.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Novavax will post -0.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Novavax

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of NVAX. Coatue Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Novavax in the 4th quarter worth $7,294,000. Shah Capital Management grew its holdings in shares of Novavax by 22.9% during the 4th quarter. Shah Capital Management now owns 7,780,756 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $37,348,000 after purchasing an additional 1,450,000 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Novavax by 9.3% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,551,476 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $83,633,000 after purchasing an additional 978,873 shares during the period. Rafferty Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Novavax by 62.4% during the 4th quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 1,611,840 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $7,737,000 after purchasing an additional 619,370 shares during the period. Finally, TSP Capital Management Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Novavax by 162.8% during the 3rd quarter. TSP Capital Management Group LLC now owns 966,350 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $6,996,000 after purchasing an additional 598,600 shares during the period. 53.04% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Novavax Company Profile

Novavax, Inc, a biotechnology company, that promotes improved health by discovering, developing, and commercializing vaccines to protect against serious infectious diseases. It offers vaccine platform that combines a recombinant protein approach, nanoparticle technology, and its patented Matrix-M adjuvant to enhance the immune response.