Novavax Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:NVAX)

Novavax, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVAX) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Traders purchased 20,114 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 61% compared to the typical volume of 12,485 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. GF Fund Management CO. LTD. acquired a new stake in shares of Novavax in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Spire Wealth Management bought a new position in Novavax in the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Novavax during the fourth quarter worth approximately $35,000. KBC Group NV lifted its holdings in shares of Novavax by 97.0% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 7,954 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $64,000 after buying an additional 3,917 shares during the period. Finally, TigerOak Management L.L.C. acquired a new position in shares of Novavax in the 4th quarter worth approximately $86,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 53.04% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on NVAX shares. TD Cowen raised shares of Novavax to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. BTIG Research began coverage on Novavax in a research note on Friday, February 28th. They set a “buy” rating and a $19.00 price objective for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $18.00.

Novavax Price Performance

Shares of NVAX stock traded down $1.49 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $5.26. The stock had a trading volume of 10,788,270 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,140,365. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $7.59 and its 200-day simple moving average is $8.92. Novavax has a fifty-two week low of $3.81 and a fifty-two week high of $23.86. The firm has a market cap of $846.68 million, a PE ratio of -2.34, a PEG ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 3.15.

Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 27th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.51) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.75) by $0.24. The firm had revenue of $88.31 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $85.48 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($1.44) earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Novavax will post -1.46 EPS for the current year.

About Novavax

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.