Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX) from a strong sell rating to a sell rating in a research report sent to investors on Monday.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on PCVX. BTIG Research raised their price objective on Vaxcyte from $85.00 to $89.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 25th. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on Vaxcyte from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 7th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Vaxcyte in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $116.00 price objective on shares of Vaxcyte in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Vaxcyte in a research note on Tuesday, March 10th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $86.00.

Vaxcyte Stock Performance

Shares of Vaxcyte stock opened at $60.81 on Monday. Vaxcyte has a 52 week low of $28.09 and a 52 week high of $65.00. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $58.26 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $50.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.75 billion, a PE ratio of -10.82 and a beta of 1.38.

Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 24th. The company reported ($1.80) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.46) by ($0.34). During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned ($1.12) earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Vaxcyte will post -7 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Vaxcyte

In other Vaxcyte news, COO Jim Wassil sold 7,395 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.88, for a total value of $435,417.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 166,818 shares in the company, valued at $9,822,243.84. This represents a 4.24% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Elvia Cowan sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.00, for a total value of $180,000.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 28,975 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,738,500. This represents a 9.38% 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 ninety days, insiders have sold 14,787 shares of company stock worth $867,031. 3.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Vaxcyte

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Vaxcyte by 33.0% during the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 741 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC increased its position in shares of Vaxcyte by 9.0% during the 4th quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,840 shares of the company’s stock valued at $131,000 after purchasing an additional 234 shares during the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Vaxcyte by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 31,274 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,443,000 after purchasing an additional 252 shares during the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Vaxcyte by 156.2% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 597 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 364 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Vaxcyte by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 10,083 shares of the company’s stock valued at $465,000 after purchasing an additional 369 shares during the last quarter. 96.78% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Vaxcyte Company Profile

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.