Vaxcyte, Inc. (NASDAQ:PCVX) Receives $86.00 Consensus PT from Brokerages

Shares of Vaxcyte, Inc. (NASDAQ:PCVX) have earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eight analysts that are covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $86.00.

PCVX has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Zacks Research upgraded Vaxcyte from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 12th. Wall Street Zen raised Vaxcyte from a “strong sell” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Vaxcyte in a report on Monday, July 6th.

Insider Activity

In other Vaxcyte news, COO Jim Wassil sold 2,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.33, for a total transaction of $126,742.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 156,760 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,830,290.80. This trade represents a 1.42% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Andrew Guggenhime sold 10,000 shares of Vaxcyte stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.00, for a total transaction of $530,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 104,395 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,532,935. This trade represents a 8.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 118,396 shares of company stock worth $6,459,390. 3.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Vaxcyte

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in PCVX. Jupiter Topco LLC purchased a new position in Vaxcyte in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,044,355,000. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Vaxcyte in the 2nd quarter worth $701,520,000. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its stake in shares of Vaxcyte by 5,915.2% in the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 8,186,622 shares of the company’s stock worth $475,888,000 after purchasing an additional 8,050,522 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its stake in shares of Vaxcyte by 23.8% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 16,575,875 shares of the company’s stock worth $960,231,000 after purchasing an additional 3,188,687 shares during the last quarter. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Vaxcyte by 35.9% during the fourth quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,296,333 shares of the company’s stock valued at $521,213,000 after purchasing an additional 2,981,038 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.78% of the company’s stock.

Vaxcyte Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PCVX opened at $60.74 on Friday. Vaxcyte has a fifty-two week low of $30.32 and a fifty-two week high of $65.00. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $57.65 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $56.03. The company has a market capitalization of $9.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.96 and a beta of 1.23.

Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported ($1.97) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($2.06) by $0.09. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned ($1.22) EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Vaxcyte will post -7.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Vaxcyte

Vaxcyte, Inc (NASDAQ: PCVX) is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing a new generation of preventive vaccines aimed at combating serious bacterial diseases. Headquartered in San Carlos, California, Vaxcyte leverages proprietary conjugation technologies to design and manufacture multivalent vaccines targeting pathogens for which there remain significant unmet medical needs. The company’s platform is intended to streamline the production of conjugate vaccines by improving antigen presentation and broadening strain coverage compared with conventional approaches.

Vaxcyte’s lead candidate, VAX-24, is a 24-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine designed to protect against 24 serotypes of Streptococcus pneumoniae.