Maravai LifeSciences Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:MRVI)

Key Points

• Unusual options activity: Investors purchased 1,002 put options on Maravai, a 1,791% increase versus the typical volume of 53 puts.
• Analyst view: Wall Street Zen upgraded MRVI from "sell" to "hold," and the consensus rating is "Hold" with an average target price of $5.38 (three Buys, one Hold, one Sell).
• Financial snapshot: Shares opened around $3.48 with a market cap near $895M; the company remains unprofitable (net margin -70.4%, negative EPS) but slightly beat last quarter's EPS and revenue estimates.

Maravai LifeSciences Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRVI - Get Free Report) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Investors purchased 1,002 put options on the company. This is an increase of 1,791% compared to the typical volume of 53 put options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Wall Street Zen upgraded Maravai LifeSciences from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, February 28th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Maravai LifeSciences presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $5.38.

Maravai LifeSciences Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MRVI opened at $3.48 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 6.60, a quick ratio of 5.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85. Maravai LifeSciences has a twelve month low of $1.95 and a twelve month high of $4.11. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $3.27 and a two-hundred day moving average of $3.38. The stock has a market cap of $894.59 million, a P/E ratio of -3.87 and a beta of 0.43.

Maravai LifeSciences (NASDAQ:MRVI - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 25th. The company reported ($0.04) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.07) by $0.03. Maravai LifeSciences had a negative return on equity of 22.79% and a negative net margin of 70.40%.The company had revenue of $49.87 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $49.06 million. On average, research analysts forecast that Maravai LifeSciences will post -0.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Maravai LifeSciences

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in Maravai LifeSciences by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 172,281 shares of the company's stock valued at $560,000 after buying an additional 5,057 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its stake in shares of Maravai LifeSciences by 12.5% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 46,528 shares of the company's stock worth $112,000 after purchasing an additional 5,160 shares during the last quarter. Epacria Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Maravai LifeSciences by 6.8% during the third quarter. Epacria Capital Partners LLC now owns 100,078 shares of the company's stock worth $287,000 after purchasing an additional 6,384 shares during the last quarter. Ethic Inc. raised its stake in shares of Maravai LifeSciences by 62.8% during the third quarter. Ethic Inc. now owns 16,951 shares of the company's stock worth $49,000 after purchasing an additional 6,540 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its stake in shares of Maravai LifeSciences by 121.1% during the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 18,021 shares of the company's stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 9,870 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 50.25% of the company's stock.

About Maravai LifeSciences

Maravai LifeSciences Holdings, Inc NASDAQ: MRVI is a life sciences company specializing in the development and supply of critical reagents and services for the development and manufacture of biologic therapies. The company's offerings support a range of applications in genomics, molecular diagnostics, vaccine development and next-generation sequencing. Maravai's platforms address key challenges in nucleic acid production, protein detection, epigenetic analysis and reagent quality across the biopharmaceutical industry.

Through its product portfolio, which includes proprietary mRNA capping reagents, lipid nanoparticle delivery systems, synthetic oligonucleotides and high-precision assay kits, Maravai enables customers to accelerate research and streamline manufacturing workflows.

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