Valneva (NASDAQ:VALN) Sees Unusually-High Trading Volume - Time to Buy?

Key Points

• Valneva SE experienced a significant increase in trading volume, with approximately 109,053 shares traded on Monday, up 79% from the previous session.
• Analysts have issued mixed ratings on the stock, with HC Wainwright maintaining a "buy" rating with a price target of $17.00, while Guggenheim lowered its target from $15.00 to $14.00.
• An institutional investor, GAMMA Investing LLC, has recently acquired a stake in Valneva, purchasing 13,964 shares valued at around $94,000.

Shares of Valneva SE Sponsored ADR (NASDAQ:VALN - Get Free Report) saw an uptick in trading volume on Monday . 109,053 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 79% from the previous session's volume of 60,807 shares.The stock last traded at $8.49 and had previously closed at $9.11.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VALN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Guggenheim reduced their price objective on shares of Valneva from $15.00 to $14.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. HC Wainwright restated a "buy" rating and set a $17.00 target price on shares of Valneva in a report on Tuesday, April 15th.

Valneva Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 2.12 and a current ratio of 2.70. The company has a 50-day moving average of $6.57 and a 200-day moving average of $6.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $916.08 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -9.21 and a beta of 1.77.

Valneva (NASDAQ:VALN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 12th. The company reported ($0.16) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.27) by $0.11. The company had revenue of $54.84 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $46.28 million. Valneva had a negative return on equity of 43.05% and a negative net margin of 43.08%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Valneva SE Sponsored ADR will post 0.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Valneva

An institutional investor recently raised its position in Valneva stock. Wells Fargo & Company MN raised its position in Valneva SE Sponsored ADR (NASDAQ:VALN - Free Report) by 14.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 246,766 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 30,859 shares during the quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN owned approximately 0.30% of Valneva worth $1,079,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period. 11.39% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Valneva Company Profile

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.