Investors Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX)

Novavax, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVAX) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock investors bought 25,659 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 156% compared to the typical volume of 10,011 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on NVAX shares. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Novavax in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on Novavax from $8.00 to $9.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Novavax from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $19.00 price target on shares of Novavax in a research report on Thursday, June 11th. Finally, Zacks Research cut shares of Novavax from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Novavax has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $13.00.

Institutional Trading of Novavax

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Novavax by 95.2% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 44,427 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $285,000 after purchasing an additional 21,663 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its position in Novavax by 2.7% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 104,562 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $678,000 after buying an additional 2,750 shares during the last quarter. Caxton Associates LLP acquired a new position in Novavax during the first quarter worth $158,000. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its holdings in Novavax by 16.4% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 312,789 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $2,005,000 after buying an additional 44,105 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strs Ohio bought a new position in Novavax during the first quarter valued at about $167,000. 53.04% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Novavax Trading Up 10.8%

NVAX stock traded up $0.86 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $8.79. The stock had a trading volume of 6,643,084 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,596,587. Novavax has a 1-year low of $6.20 and a 1-year high of $11.97. The company has a fifty day moving average of $8.49 and a 200 day moving average of $8.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.77 and a beta of 2.47.

Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.32) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.38) by $0.06. The company had revenue of $56.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $52.51 million. Novavax had a negative return on equity of 14.82% and a negative net margin of 59.87%.The business’s quarterly revenue was down 76.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.62 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Novavax will post -0.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Novavax Company Profile

Novavax, Inc is a clinical-stage biotechnology company headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland, that specializes in the discovery, development and commercialization of next-generation vaccines to prevent serious infectious diseases. Founded in 1987, the company has built a platform based on recombinant nanoparticle technology and its proprietary Matrix-M™ adjuvant to enhance immune responses.

The company’s lead product is NVX-CoV2373, a protein-based vaccine designed to elicit a robust immune response against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.