Valneva (NASDAQ:VALN) Shares Gap Up – Still a Buy?

Valneva SE (NASDAQ:VALN) shares gapped up before the market opened on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $6.67, but opened at $7.40. Valneva shares last traded at $7.43, with a volume of 37,602 shares changing hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, HC Wainwright cut their target price on shares of Valneva from $18.00 to $17.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday.

Valneva Price Performance

The firm’s 50-day moving average is $5.10 and its 200-day moving average is $5.66. The company has a market capitalization of $642.77 million, a PE ratio of -60.85 and a beta of 1.98. The company has a quick ratio of 2.25, a current ratio of 2.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. ABC Arbitrage SA bought a new position in shares of Valneva during the fourth quarter valued at about $84,000. AlphaCentric Advisors LLC raised its stake in Valneva by 33.7% in the third quarter. AlphaCentric Advisors LLC now owns 118,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $717,000 after buying an additional 29,748 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company MN raised its stake in Valneva by 14.3% in the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 246,766 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,079,000 after buying an additional 30,859 shares in the last quarter. 11.39% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Valneva Company Profile

Valneva SE, a specialty vaccine company, develops, manufactures, and commercializes prophylactic vaccines for infectious diseases with unmet needs. It offers IXIARO, an inactivated Vero cell culture-derived Japanese encephalitis vaccine indicated for active immunization against Japanese encephalitis; DUKORAL, an oral vaccine for the prevention of diarrhea caused by Vibrio cholera and/or heat-labile toxin producing enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli bacterium; IXCHIQ, a single-dose, live-attenuated vaccine for the prevention of disease caused by chikungunya virus; and VLA2001, an inactivated whole-virus COVID-19 vaccine.