Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 11,178 Shares of Novavax, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVAX)

Principal Financial Group Inc. reduced its position in shares of Novavax, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVAX) by 47.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 12,419 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 11,178 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Novavax were worth $157,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Shah Capital Management grew its stake in shares of Novavax by 19.0% during the second quarter. Shah Capital Management now owns 9,662,090 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $122,322,000 after acquiring an additional 1,544,263 shares during the last quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. grew its position in shares of Novavax by 110.3% in the third quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 498,532 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $6,296,000 after purchasing an additional 261,464 shares during the period. Squarepoint Ops LLC acquired a new stake in Novavax during the 2nd quarter worth $1,251,000. ProShare Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Novavax by 29.9% in the first quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 37,203 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $178,000 after purchasing an additional 8,570 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its holdings in Novavax by 940.7% in the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 1,154,276 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $14,579,000 after purchasing an additional 1,043,363 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 53.04% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. B. Riley reissued a “buy” rating and set a $26.00 target price (up previously from $23.00) on shares of Novavax in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and issued a $19.00 price target on shares of Novavax in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on Novavax from $31.00 to $25.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Novavax from $8.00 to $9.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $17.83.

Novavax Stock Performance

Shares of NVAX opened at $9.32 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $10.81 and a two-hundred day moving average of $12.63. Novavax, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $3.53 and a fifty-two week high of $23.86. The company has a market capitalization of $1.49 billion, a PE ratio of -4.12 and a beta of 2.10.

Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 12th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.76) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.83) by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $84.51 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $65.80 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($1.26) EPS. Novavax’s revenue was down 54.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Novavax, Inc. will post -1.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Novavax

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.