Investors Buy Large Volume of Put Options on Maravai LifeSciences (NASDAQ:MRVI)

Maravai LifeSciences Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRVI) saw unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Investors acquired 1,002 put options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 1,791% compared to the average daily volume of 53 put options.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Bernd Brust acquired 216,212 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 13th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $3.25 per share, with a total value of $702,689.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 466,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,517,005.75. This trade represents a 86.29% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Gregory T. Lucier bought 51,472 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 5th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $3.70 per share, for a total transaction of $190,446.40. Following the transaction, the director owned 106,595 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $394,401.50. This trade represents a 93.38% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders have acquired 566,771 shares of company stock valued at $1,880,244. 2.11% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sprott Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Maravai LifeSciences during the third quarter worth about $29,000. Callan Family Office LLC purchased a new position in Maravai LifeSciences during the second quarter worth about $25,000. Ethic Inc. acquired a new position in Maravai LifeSciences during the second quarter worth approximately $26,000. Quantessence Capital LLC purchased a new position in Maravai LifeSciences during the third quarter worth approximately $31,000. Finally, Abel Hall LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Maravai LifeSciences during the 3rd quarter valued at $33,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 50.25% of the company’s stock.

Maravai LifeSciences Price Performance

MRVI stock opened at $3.83 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $979.37 million, a P/E ratio of -4.56 and a beta of 0.33. The company has a current ratio of 5.29, a quick ratio of 4.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. Maravai LifeSciences has a twelve month low of $1.66 and a twelve month high of $6.05. The company’s 50 day moving average is $3.61 and its two-hundred day moving average is $3.06.

Maravai LifeSciences (NASDAQ:MRVI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported ($0.08) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.06) by ($0.02). Maravai LifeSciences had a negative return on equity of 22.42% and a negative net margin of 62.88%.The company had revenue of $41.63 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $49.02 million. Research analysts expect that Maravai LifeSciences will post -0.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Maravai LifeSciences from $4.00 to $4.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 15th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Maravai LifeSciences in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Maravai LifeSciences presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $5.25.

About Maravai LifeSciences

Maravai LifeSciences Holdings, Inc (NASDAQ: MRVI) is a life sciences company specializing in the development and supply of critical reagents and services for the development and manufacture of biologic therapies. The company’s offerings support a range of applications in genomics, molecular diagnostics, vaccine development and next-generation sequencing. Maravai’s platforms address key challenges in nucleic acid production, protein detection, epigenetic analysis and reagent quality across the biopharmaceutical industry.

Through its product portfolio, which includes proprietary mRNA capping reagents, lipid nanoparticle delivery systems, synthetic oligonucleotides and high-precision assay kits, Maravai enables customers to accelerate research and streamline manufacturing workflows.