Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX) Stock Rating Lowered by Wall Street Zen

Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX) was downgraded by equities research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report issued on Sunday.

Several other analysts have also recently issued reports on PCVX. BTIG Research upped their price target on shares of Vaxcyte from $85.00 to $89.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 25th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Vaxcyte in a report on Tuesday, March 10th. Needham & Company LLC upped their price target on shares of Vaxcyte from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 7th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Vaxcyte in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. Finally, Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $116.00 price target on shares of Vaxcyte in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $86.00.

Vaxcyte Trading Up 1.4%

NASDAQ PCVX opened at $61.75 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $57.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $49.74. Vaxcyte has a 52 week low of $28.09 and a 52 week high of $65.00. The stock has a market cap of $8.89 billion, a P/E ratio of -10.99 and a beta of 1.38.

Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 24th. The company reported ($1.80) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($1.46) by ($0.34). During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned ($1.12) EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Vaxcyte will post -4.21 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Vaxcyte news, COO Jim Wassil sold 7,395 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.88, for a total transaction of $435,417.60. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 166,818 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,822,243.84. This represents a 4.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Elvia Cowan sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.00, for a total transaction of $180,000.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 28,975 shares in the company, valued at $1,738,500. This trade represents a 9.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 14,787 shares of company stock worth $867,031 over the last three months. 3.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Vaxcyte

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Vaxcyte by 156.2% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 597 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 364 shares during the last quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd grew its position in shares of Vaxcyte by 1,463.4% during the fourth quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 641 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 600 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Vaxcyte by 33.0% during the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 741 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP grew its position in shares of Vaxcyte by 148.9% during the third quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 1,222 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,000 after acquiring an additional 731 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd bought a new position in shares of Vaxcyte during the third quarter worth about $45,000. Institutional investors own 96.78% of the company’s stock.

Vaxcyte Company Profile

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.