Valneva (NASDAQ:VALN) Shares Gap Up to $7.72

Valneva SE (NASDAQ:VALN - Get Free Report) shares gapped up before the market opened on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $7.72, but opened at $8.26. Valneva shares last traded at $8.26, with a volume of 968 shares traded.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $26.00 target price on shares of Valneva in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Guggenheim reduced their price objective on Valneva from $18.00 to $17.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 22nd.

Valneva Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $543.18 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.23 and a beta of 2.25. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $7.66 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $9.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.65.

Institutional Trading of Valneva

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Jane Street Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Valneva by 85.9% in the first quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 16,584 shares of the company's stock worth $569,000 after acquiring an additional 7,664 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new position in shares of Valneva in the 1st quarter valued at $858,000. Finally, UBS Group AG purchased a new stake in shares of Valneva during the 2nd quarter valued at $31,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 11.39% of the company's stock.

About Valneva

Valneva SE, a specialty vaccine company, develops, manufactures, and commercializes prophylactic vaccines for infectious diseases with unmet needs. It offers IXIARO, an inactivated Vero cell culture-derived Japanese encephalitis vaccine indicated for active immunization against Japanese encephalitis; DUKORAL, an oral vaccine for the prevention of diarrhea caused by Vibrio cholera and/or heat-labile toxin producing enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli bacterium; IXCHIQ, a single-dose, live-attenuated vaccine for the prevention of disease caused by chikungunya virus; and VLA2001, an inactivated whole-virus COVID-19 vaccine.