Traders Purchase Large Volume of Put Options on Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX)

Novavax, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVAX) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock investors purchased 29,212 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 172% compared to the typical volume of 10,759 put options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Novavax

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in NVAX. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Novavax by 95.2% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 44,427 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $285,000 after buying an additional 21,663 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Novavax by 2.7% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 104,562 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $678,000 after acquiring an additional 2,750 shares during the last quarter. Caxton Associates LLP bought a new position in Novavax during the first quarter worth $158,000. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its position in Novavax by 16.4% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 312,789 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $2,005,000 after acquiring an additional 44,105 shares during the period. Finally, Strs Ohio acquired a new position in Novavax during the 1st quarter valued at $167,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 53.04% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NVAX has been the topic of several recent research reports. TD Cowen raised their target price on Novavax from $8.00 to $9.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Novavax in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating and set a $19.00 price objective on shares of Novavax in a report on Thursday, June 11th. Zacks Research downgraded Novavax from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered Novavax from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, August 1st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Novavax presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $14.00.

Novavax Price Performance

NASDAQ:NVAX traded down $0.27 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $9.17. The stock had a trading volume of 2,449,866 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,681,603. Novavax has a 1-year low of $6.20 and a 1-year high of $11.97. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $8.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $8.92. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.51 billion, a P/E ratio of -6.03 and a beta of 2.46.

Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.32) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.38) by $0.06. Novavax had a negative net margin of 59.87% and a negative return on equity of 14.82%. The firm had revenue of $56.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $52.51 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.62 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 76.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Novavax will post -0.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Novavax

Novavax, Inc is a clinical-stage biotechnology company headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland, that specializes in the discovery, development and commercialization of next-generation vaccines to prevent serious infectious diseases. Founded in 1987, the company has built a platform based on recombinant nanoparticle technology and its proprietary Matrix-M™ adjuvant to enhance immune responses.

The company’s lead product is NVX-CoV2373, a protein-based vaccine designed to elicit a robust immune response against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.