Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX) COO Sells $127,867.50 in Stock

Vaxcyte, Inc. (NASDAQ:PCVX) COO Jim Wassil sold 2,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.83, for a total value of $127,867.50. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 160,744 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,135,081.52. This represents a 1.38% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Jim Wassil also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, March 10th, Jim Wassil sold 7,395 shares of Vaxcyte stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.88, for a total value of $435,417.60.

Vaxcyte Price Performance

Vaxcyte stock traded down $0.31 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $56.93. 696,793 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,332,142. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $58.73 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $51.47. Vaxcyte, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $28.09 and a fifty-two week high of $65.00. The stock has a market cap of $8.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.13 and a beta of 1.38.

Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 24th. The company reported ($1.80) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($1.46) by ($0.34). During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($1.12) earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Vaxcyte, Inc. will post -7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Guggenheim reissued a “buy” rating and set a $116.00 target price on shares of Vaxcyte in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Vaxcyte in a report on Wednesday, April 8th. Needham & Company LLC lifted their target price on Vaxcyte from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 7th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Vaxcyte from a “sell” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Vaxcyte in a report on Tuesday, March 10th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $86.00.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of PCVX. Royal Bank of Canada raised its stake in Vaxcyte by 115.2% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 29,471 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,113,000 after purchasing an additional 15,774 shares in the last quarter. Cubist Systematic Strategies LLC acquired a new position in Vaxcyte in the first quarter valued at about $219,000. Caxton Associates LLP acquired a new position in Vaxcyte in the first quarter valued at about $226,000. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised 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 purchasing an additional 41,034 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers raised its stake in Vaxcyte by 13.8% in the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 7,681 shares of the company’s stock valued at $250,000 after purchasing an additional 932 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.