Needham & Company LLC Reiterates Buy Rating for Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX)

Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by investment analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $110.00 price target on the stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 95.25% from the company’s current price.

PCVX has been the subject of a number of other reports. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Vaxcyte from a “strong sell” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 8th. Zacks Research raised shares of Vaxcyte from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 12th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Vaxcyte in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $98.00.

Vaxcyte Trading Down 1.0%

Vaxcyte stock traded down $0.56 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $56.34. 42,201 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,374,775. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $58.58 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $56.19. The firm has a market cap of $8.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.36 and a beta of 1.22. Vaxcyte has a fifty-two week low of $31.89 and a fifty-two week high of $65.00.

Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported ($1.97) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($2.06) by $0.09. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($1.22) EPS. Analysts anticipate that Vaxcyte will post -7.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Vaxcyte

In other news, CFO Andrew Guggenhime sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.89, for a total value of $538,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 105,176 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,667,934.64. This represents a 8.68% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Grant Pickering sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.65, for a total transaction of $111,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 133,215 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,413,414.75. This represents a 1.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 65,890 shares of company stock valued at $3,683,224. 3.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Vaxcyte

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Jupiter Topco LLC bought a new stake in shares of 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 approximately $701,520,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its holdings in shares of Vaxcyte by 23.8% in the 1st 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 in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Vaxcyte by 35.9% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of Vaxcyte by 24.7% in the 2nd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,001,565 shares of the company’s stock worth $407,001,000 after purchasing an additional 1,386,968 shares in the last quarter. 96.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Vaxcyte

Vaxcyte, Inc is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing vaccines to prevent serious bacterial infections. The company’s lead programs target pneumococcal disease, which can cause pneumonia, meningitis, bloodstream infections and other invasive illnesses. Vaxcyte is developing broad-spectrum pneumococcal conjugate vaccine candidates designed to protect against a wide range of bacterial serotypes.

Vaxcyte’s pipeline has included VAX-24, an investigational 24-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, and VAX-31, a next-generation candidate designed to cover 31 serotypes.