Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX) Rating Increased to Strong-Buy at Evercore ISI

Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX) was upgraded by Evercore ISI to a “strong-buy” rating in a report issued on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on PCVX. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $160.00 target price on shares of Vaxcyte in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Needham & Company LLC cut their price objective on Vaxcyte from $140.00 to $90.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Bank of America decreased their target price on shares of Vaxcyte from $157.00 to $137.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on shares of Vaxcyte from $138.00 to $100.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Vaxcyte has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $136.50.

Vaxcyte Trading Up 4.5 %

Vaxcyte stock opened at $33.69 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $76.94 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $90.84. Vaxcyte has a 12 month low of $30.12 and a 12 month high of $121.06. The company has a market capitalization of $4.34 billion, a PE ratio of -7.32 and a beta of 1.02.

Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The company reported ($1.02) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.16) by $0.14. As a group, analysts predict that Vaxcyte will post -4.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Vaxcyte

In related news, Director Teri Loxam sold 6,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $85.11, for a total transaction of $531,937.50. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 7,175 shares in the company, valued at approximately $610,664.25. The trade was a 46.55 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Jim Wassil sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.27, for a total value of $586,160.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 154,931 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,351,794.37. This represents a 4.91 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 38,250 shares of company stock worth $3,170,738 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 3.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Vaxcyte

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Vaxcyte by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,961,687 shares of the company’s stock worth $979,184,000 after purchasing an additional 521,204 shares in the last quarter. RA Capital Management L.P. raised its position in shares of Vaxcyte by 5.9% in the third quarter. RA Capital Management L.P. now owns 8,689,190 shares of the company’s stock worth $992,914,000 after buying an additional 485,436 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in Vaxcyte by 26.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 6,210,523 shares of the company’s stock valued at $508,393,000 after buying an additional 1,312,302 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its position in Vaxcyte by 1.1% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,405,743 shares of the company’s stock worth $389,174,000 after buying an additional 38,596 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in Vaxcyte by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,869,332 shares of the company’s stock worth $234,884,000 after buying an additional 82,997 shares in the last quarter. 96.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Vaxcyte Company Profile

Vaxcyte, Inc, a clinical-stage biotechnology vaccine company, develops novel protein vaccines to prevent or treat bacterial infectious diseases. Its lead vaccine candidate is VAX-24, a 24-valent investigational pneumococcal conjugate vaccine for the prevention of invasive pneumococcal disease. The company also develops VAX-31 to protect against emerging strains and to help address antibiotic resistance; VAX-A1, a novel conjugate vaccine candidate to prevent disease caused by Group A Streptococcus; VAX-PG, a novel protein vaccine candidate targeting keystone pathogen responsible for periodontitis; and VAX-GI to prevent Shigella, a bacterial illness.