BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Saturday.

BNTX has been the topic of several other research reports. Canaccord Genuity Group cut their price objective on BioNTech from $171.00 to $158.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on BioNTech from $126.00 to $119.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of BioNTech in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Berenberg Bank reduced their price target on shares of BioNTech from $155.00 to $140.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of BioNTech in a research note on Monday, June 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $129.12.

BioNTech Price Performance

BioNTech stock opened at $92.16 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $91.32 and its 200-day simple moving average is $97.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 8.74 and a current ratio of 8.80. BioNTech has a 1 year low of $79.52 and a 1 year high of $124.00. The company has a market capitalization of $23.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -15.67 and a beta of 1.32.

BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX) last posted its earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The company reported ($2.26) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($2.52) by $0.26. The firm had revenue of $136.71 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $207.42 million. BioNTech had a negative net margin of 44.39% and a negative return on equity of 5.30%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 35.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($1.73) EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that BioNTech will post -5.79 earnings per share for the current year.

BioNTech declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, May 7th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to buy up to 4.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at BioNTech

In other BioNTech news, COO Sierk Poetting sold 50,000 shares of BioNTech stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $110.56, for a total transaction of $5,528,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 399,387 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $44,156,226.72. The trade was a 11.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Company insiders own 19.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of BNTX. PensionDanmark Pensionsforsikringsaktieselskab grew its holdings in shares of BioNTech by 10.9% during the second quarter. PensionDanmark Pensionsforsikringsaktieselskab now owns 8,290 shares of the company’s stock worth $771,000 after buying an additional 816 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new stake in BioNTech during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $39,385,000. Bank of America Corp DE grew its stake in shares of BioNTech by 22.6% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 903,029 shares of the company’s stock valued at $80,261,000 after purchasing an additional 166,432 shares during the last quarter. Amundi raised its stake in shares of BioNTech by 24.5% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 129,513 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,511,000 after purchasing an additional 25,506 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted its stake in shares of BioNTech by 15.5% in the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 46,991 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,177,000 after acquiring an additional 6,308 shares during the period. 15.52% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

BioNTech Company Profile

BioNTech SE (NASDAQ: BNTX) is a Germany-based biotechnology company that develops next-generation immunotherapies and vaccines, with a primary focus on messenger RNA (mRNA) technology. Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Mainz, BioNTech advances a platform approach to design and manufacture therapeutics across oncology, infectious diseases and other high unmet-need areas. The company is publicly traded on the NASDAQ exchange and became widely known for its rapid development and global deployment of an mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine in collaboration with Pfizer.

BioNTech’s core activities include discovery research, clinical development and manufacturing of mRNA-based medicines, personalized cancer immunotherapies, engineered cell therapies, and antibody- and protein-based therapeutics.