Legal & General Group Plc Makes New Investment in Vaxcyte, Inc. $PCVX

Key Points

• Legal & General Group initiated a position in Vaxcyte during the second quarter, purchasing 97,451 shares valued at approximately $5.7 million. Institutional investors collectively own 96.78% of the company.
• Analyst sentiment remains broadly positive, with five Buy, two Hold, and one Sell rating; MarketBeat reports a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an $86 price target.
• PCVX opened at $61.17, near its 52-week high of $65.00, while executives have recently sold shares; the company’s latest quarterly loss of $1.97 per share was narrower than analysts expected.

Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in shares of Vaxcyte, Inc. (NASDAQ:PCVX - Free Report) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 97,451 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,665,000. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 0.07% of Vaxcyte at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company acquired a new stake in shares of Vaxcyte in the 2nd quarter valued at about $6,307,000. Spruce Street Capital LP purchased a new stake in Vaxcyte in the second quarter valued at approximately $17,790,512. Algert Global LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Vaxcyte by 41.6% in the second quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 515,343 shares of the company's stock valued at $29,957,000 after acquiring an additional 151,359 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Vaxcyte in the second quarter valued at approximately $325,000. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. purchased a new position in shares of Vaxcyte during the second quarter worth approximately $78,000. 96.78% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on PCVX shares. Zacks Research raised shares of Vaxcyte from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 12th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Vaxcyte from a "strong sell" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Vaxcyte in a report on Monday, July 6th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Vaxcyte currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $86.00.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Jim Wassil sold 3,477 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.07, for a total transaction of $212,340.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 155,041 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $9,468,353.87. This represents a 2.19% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CEO Grant Pickering sold 22,461 shares of Vaxcyte stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.50, for a total value of $1,179,202.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 474,703 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,921,907.50. This trade represents a 4.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 121,873 shares of company stock valued at $6,671,730. Company insiders own 3.30% of the company's stock.

Vaxcyte Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PCVX opened at $61.17 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $58.13 and a 200 day moving average price of $56.17. Vaxcyte, Inc. has a 1-year low of $30.81 and a 1-year high of $65.00. The company has a market cap of $9.10 billion, a PE ratio of -8.02 and a beta of 1.22.

Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported ($1.97) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of ($2.06) by $0.09. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($1.22) EPS. Analysts anticipate that Vaxcyte, Inc. will post -7.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.

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