Insider Selling: Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX) COO Sells 7,395 Shares of Stock

Vaxcyte, Inc. (NASDAQ:PCVX) COO Jim Wassil sold 7,395 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.88, for a total transaction of $435,417.60. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 166,818 shares in the company, valued at $9,822,243.84. The trade was a 4.24% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

Vaxcyte Trading Down 1.2%

NASDAQ:PCVX traded down $0.71 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $57.53. The stock had a trading volume of 696,500 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,402,211. Vaxcyte, Inc. has a twelve month low of $27.66 and a twelve month high of $76.61. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $53.49 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $45.47. The company has a market capitalization of $8.28 billion, a PE ratio of -10.24 and a beta of 1.31.

Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 24th. The company reported ($1.80) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($1.46) by ($0.34). During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($1.12) EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Vaxcyte, Inc. will post -4.21 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on PCVX shares. Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on shares of Vaxcyte from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 7th. Leerink Partners set a $77.00 price target on Vaxcyte and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 19th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Vaxcyte in a report on Friday, January 9th. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $116.00 price objective on shares of Vaxcyte in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, BTIG Research raised their target price on Vaxcyte from $85.00 to $89.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $94.50.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Royal Bank of Canada grew its position in shares of Vaxcyte by 115.2% in the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 29,471 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,113,000 after buying an additional 15,774 shares during the last quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in Vaxcyte in the first quarter valued at $219,000. Caxton Associates LLP purchased a new stake in Vaxcyte in the first quarter valued at $226,000. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its stake in Vaxcyte by 8.7% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 513,998 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,409,000 after acquiring an additional 41,034 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Atria Investments Inc boosted its stake in Vaxcyte by 11.1% in the second quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 6,816 shares of the company’s stock valued at $222,000 after acquiring an additional 683 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.