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

Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by research analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research note issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $110.00 price target on the stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 94.25% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on PCVX. Wall Street Zen upgraded 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 report on Wednesday, August 12th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Vaxcyte in a research report on Monday, July 6th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $98.00.

Vaxcyte Stock Performance

NASDAQ:PCVX traded down $0.27 on Friday, hitting $56.63. 109,396 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,375,104. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.43 and a beta of 1.22. Vaxcyte has a 52 week low of $31.89 and a 52 week high of $65.00. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $58.58 and its 200 day moving average price is $56.19.

Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported ($1.97) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($2.06) by $0.09. During the same period last year, the firm earned ($1.22) EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Vaxcyte will post -7.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Harpreet Dhaliwal sold 17,000 shares of Vaxcyte stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.00, for a total value of $935,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 76,756 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,221,580. The trade was a 18.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Andrew Guggenhime sold 10,000 shares of Vaxcyte stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.89, for a total value of $538,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 105,176 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,667,934.64. This represents a 8.68% 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. Insiders sold a total of 65,890 shares of company stock valued at $3,683,224 over the last 90 days. 3.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Jupiter Topco LLC bought a new position in Vaxcyte during the 2nd quarter valued at $1,044,355,000. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in Vaxcyte during the 2nd quarter valued at $701,520,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its stake in Vaxcyte by 23.8% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 16,575,875 shares of the company’s stock valued at $960,231,000 after acquiring an additional 3,188,687 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Vaxcyte by 35.9% during the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,296,333 shares of the company’s stock valued at $521,213,000 after acquiring an additional 2,981,038 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in Vaxcyte by 24.7% during the 2nd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,001,565 shares of the company’s stock valued at $407,001,000 after acquiring an additional 1,386,968 shares in the last quarter. 96.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Vaxcyte Company Profile

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.