Novavax Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NASDAQ:NVAX)

Novavax, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVAX) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Traders purchased 26,350 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 25% compared to the typical daily volume of 21,001 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Novavax

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise grew its stake in Novavax by 500.0% during the second quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise now owns 3,000 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 2,500 shares in the last quarter. Amalgamated Bank grew its stake in Novavax by 26.9% during the second quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 4,887 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $62,000 after buying an additional 1,036 shares in the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC grew its stake in Novavax by 214.5% during the second quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 5,680 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $72,000 after buying an additional 3,874 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its stake in Novavax by 38.1% during the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 5,790 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $77,000 after buying an additional 1,598 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Midland Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Novavax during the second quarter worth about $152,000. 53.04% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Novavax Stock Performance

NVAX stock opened at $8.94 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $9.99 and its 200 day simple moving average is $12.39. Novavax has a 52 week low of $3.53 and a 52 week high of $23.86. The company has a market capitalization of $1.43 billion, a PE ratio of -3.96 and a beta of 2.02.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

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.