Novavax NVAX shares soared 11.9% in the last trading session to close at $8.67. The move was backed by solid volume with far more shares changing hands than in a normal session. This compares to the stock's 17.8% gain over the past four weeks.
This surge is attributable to multiple third-party articles that claimed that the financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated its Overweight rating on Novavax’s shares with an $18 price target, which is more than double its current stock price. These articles claimed that the firm views 2025 sales as moving in the right direction, with Nuvaxovid sales expected to improve under Sanofi’s commercial leadership. Cantor reportedly views Novavax’s proprietary platform, Matrix-M, as the long-term play.
This vaccine maker is expected to post quarterly loss of $0.66 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of -29.4%. Revenues are expected to be $78.41 million, down 11.2% from the year-ago quarter.
While earnings and revenue growth expectations are important in evaluating the potential strength in a stock, empirical research shows a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and near-term stock price movements.
For Novavax, the consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has remained unchanged over the last 30 days. And a stock's price usually doesn't keep moving higher in the absence of any trend in earnings estimate revisions. So, make sure to keep an eye on NVAX going forward to see if this recent jump can turn into more strength down the road.
The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here >>>>
Novavax is part of the Zacks Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry. Ocugen OCGN, another stock in the same industry, closed the last trading session 7.3% higher at $1.91. OCGN has returned 29% in the past month.
Ocugen's consensus EPS estimate for the upcoming report has remained unchanged over the past month at -$0.06. Compared to the company's year-ago EPS, this represents a change of -20%. Ocugen currently boasts a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
