The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Purchases 20,709 Shares of Novavax, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVAX)

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its position in Novavax, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVAX) by 53.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 59,656 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after acquiring an additional 20,709 shares during the quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company’s holdings in Novavax were worth $755,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Shah Capital Management lifted its holdings in shares of Novavax by 19.0% in the 2nd quarter. Shah Capital Management now owns 9,662,090 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $122,322,000 after acquiring an additional 1,544,263 shares during the last quarter. TSP Capital Management Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Novavax by 23.9% in the 1st quarter. TSP Capital Management Group LLC now owns 1,376,950 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $6,582,000 after acquiring an additional 265,250 shares during the last quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Novavax in the 1st quarter worth about $5,406,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Novavax in the 2nd quarter worth about $14,055,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Novavax by 34.3% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 533,942 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $6,760,000 after acquiring an additional 136,472 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 53.04% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently commented on NVAX shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Novavax from $8.00 to $9.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $31.00 price target on shares of Novavax in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, B. Riley reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $26.00 price target (up previously from $23.00) on shares of Novavax in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Novavax currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $18.83.

Novavax Stock Performance

NASDAQ NVAX opened at $12.62 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.98 and a beta of 2.04. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $12.47 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $11.57. Novavax, Inc. has a one year low of $3.53 and a one year high of $23.86.

Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.99 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by ($0.83). The business had revenue of $415.50 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $458.57 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.58 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Novavax, Inc. will post -0.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.