Traders Buy High Volume of Novavax Call Options (NASDAQ:NVAX)

Novavax, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVAX) saw unusually large options trading on Thursday. Stock investors bought 20,114 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 61% compared to the average volume of 12,485 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of NVAX. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its holdings in Novavax by 33.7% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 79,783 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $1,008,000 after purchasing an additional 20,127 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Novavax by 26.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,687,951 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $97,099,000 after buying an additional 1,621,772 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP acquired a new stake in Novavax during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $923,000. XTX Topco Ltd grew its holdings in Novavax by 147.6% during the 3rd quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 63,126 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $797,000 after acquiring an additional 37,631 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC increased its position in Novavax by 73.9% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 709,579 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $8,961,000 after acquiring an additional 301,627 shares during the period. 53.04% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. TD Cowen raised shares of Novavax to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. BTIG Research began coverage on shares of Novavax in a report on Friday, February 28th. They set a “buy” rating and a $19.00 price target for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $18.00.

Novavax Trading Up 7.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ NVAX opened at $5.86 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $942.55 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.59, a PEG ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 3.15. Novavax has a 12 month low of $3.81 and a 12 month high of $23.86. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $7.48 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $8.82.

Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($0.51) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.75) by $0.24. The company had revenue of $88.31 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $85.48 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($1.44) earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Novavax will post -1.46 earnings per share for the current year.

About Novavax

Novavax, Inc, a biotechnology company, that promotes improved health by discovering, developing, and commercializing vaccines to protect against serious infectious diseases. It offers vaccine platform that combines a recombinant protein approach, nanoparticle technology, and its patented Matrix-M adjuvant to enhance the immune response.