BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX) Stock Picked Up by Analysts at Argus

Stock analysts at Argus began coverage on shares of BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX) in a report issued on Thursday, Briefing.com reports. The brokerage set a “hold” rating on the stock.

A number of other research analysts have also commented on BNTX. Citigroup decreased their price objective on BioNTech from $130.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of BioNTech in a research note on Friday, October 2nd. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of BioNTech from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, August 8th. BMO Capital Markets cut BioNTech from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $128.00 to $105.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 8th. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of BioNTech in a report on Wednesday, September 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, BioNTech has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $125.69.

BioNTech Stock Performance

Shares of BNTX stock opened at $95.25 on Thursday. BioNTech has a 52 week low of $79.52 and a 52 week high of $124.00. The company has a market capitalization of $24.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -12.16 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $99.06 and a 200 day simple moving average of $95.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 7.80 and a current ratio of 7.85.

BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The company reported ($2.53) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($2.40) by ($0.13). The company had revenue of $122.31 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $180.18 million. BioNTech had a negative net margin of 63.54% and a negative return on equity of 6.86%. The firm’s revenue was down 59.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned ($1.60) earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that BioNTech will post -6.37 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at BioNTech

In other news, CEO Ugur Sahin sold 72,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $97.23, for a total transaction of $7,000,560.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 108,209 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,521,161.07. This represents a 39.95% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 744,000 shares of company stock worth $73,301,215 in the last quarter. 19.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BioNTech

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Engineers Gate Manager LP lifted its stake in shares of BioNTech by 17.3% in the second quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP now owns 12,433 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,157,000 after buying an additional 1,833 shares in the last quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC bought a new position in shares of BioNTech in the second quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Nykredit A S bought a new position in BioNTech in the 2nd quarter valued at $293,000. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG increased its holdings in BioNTech by 66.7% during the second quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG now owns 10,967 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,020,000 after buying an additional 4,390 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BioNTech during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $2,520,000. 15.52% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About BioNTech

BioNTech SE is a biotechnology company headquartered in Mainz, Germany, focused on developing therapies and vaccines for cancer and other serious diseases. The company’s research platform includes messenger RNA (mRNA), individualized cancer vaccines, immune-modulating therapies, cell therapies, and protein-based therapeutics.

BioNTech is best known for developing the Comirnaty COVID-19 vaccine in collaboration with Pfizer. Comirnaty uses mRNA technology to help stimulate an immune response against COVID-19 and has been distributed in markets around the world.