Brokerages Set Vaxcyte, Inc. (NASDAQ:PCVX) PT at $86.00

Shares of Vaxcyte, Inc. (NASDAQ:PCVX) have earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the eight brokerages that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $86.00.

PCVX has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Vaxcyte in a research report on Tuesday, March 10th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $116.00 target price on shares of Vaxcyte in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Vaxcyte from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 28th. BTIG Research upped their target price on shares of Vaxcyte from $85.00 to $89.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 25th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Vaxcyte in a research report on Wednesday, April 8th.

Vaxcyte Trading Up 1.8%

Shares of PCVX stock opened at $51.02 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $56.07 and its 200-day moving average price is $52.59. The stock has a market cap of $7.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.42 and a beta of 1.30. Vaxcyte has a twelve month low of $29.08 and a twelve month high of $65.00.

Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported ($2.30) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($1.74) by ($0.56). During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned ($1.04) EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Vaxcyte will post -7.85 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Vaxcyte

In other Vaxcyte news, COO Jim Wassil sold 7,395 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.88, for a total value of $435,417.60. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 166,818 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,822,243.84. This represents a 4.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Elvia Cowan sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.00, for a total transaction of $180,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 28,975 shares in the company, valued at $1,738,500. The trade was a 9.38% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 17,037 shares of company stock worth $994,899 in the last ninety days. 3.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its stake in Vaxcyte by 23.8% during 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 period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Vaxcyte by 2.7% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,320,453 shares of the company’s stock worth $443,783,000 after purchasing an additional 323,368 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in 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 worth $521,213,000 after purchasing an additional 2,981,038 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Vaxcyte by 18.5% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 5,966,310 shares of the company’s stock worth $275,286,000 after purchasing an additional 933,539 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp increased its stake in Vaxcyte by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,980,005 shares of the company’s stock worth $229,777,000 after purchasing an additional 194,116 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.78% of the company’s stock.

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.