Jefferies Financial Group Reaffirms “Buy” Rating for Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX)

Jefferies Financial Group reiterated their buy rating on shares of Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) in a report issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $31.00 price target on the biopharmaceutical company’s stock.

A number of other research firms also recently weighed in on NVAX. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Novavax from $8.00 to $9.00 and gave the stock an underweight rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Novavax from $12.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Friday, June 14th. Finally, B. Riley reiterated a buy rating and set a $23.00 target price (down from $25.00) on shares of Novavax in a report on Monday, August 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $18.33.

Novavax Price Performance

Shares of NVAX opened at $13.61 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $12.50 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $11.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.91 billion, a PE ratio of -4.29 and a beta of 2.04. Novavax has a one year low of $3.53 and a one year high of $23.86.

Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.99 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by ($0.83). The firm had revenue of $415.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $458.57 million. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.58 EPS. Analysts expect that Novavax will post -1.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Novavax

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of NVAX. Shah Capital Management lifted its stake in shares of Novavax by 19.0% in the second quarter. Shah Capital Management now owns 9,662,090 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $122,322,000 after buying an additional 1,544,263 shares in the last quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Novavax by 62.4% in the 4th quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 1,611,840 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $7,737,000 after acquiring an additional 619,370 shares in the last quarter. Coatue Management LLC purchased a new stake in Novavax during the 4th quarter valued at $7,294,000. TSP Capital Management Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Novavax by 23.9% in the 1st quarter. TSP Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,376,950 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $6,582,000 after purchasing an additional 265,250 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC raised its stake in shares of Novavax by 940.7% in the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 1,154,276 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $14,579,000 after purchasing an additional 1,043,363 shares during the last quarter. 53.04% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.