Novavax (NVAX) Surges 19.5%: Is This an Indication of Further Gains?

Novavax NVAX shares rallied 19.5% in the last trading session to close at $7.47. This move can be attributable to notable volume with a higher number of shares being traded than in a typical session. This compares to the stock's 17.3% loss over the past four weeks.

The rise in share price comes after the vaccine-maker announced that the FDA has requested additional data on its protein-based COVID-19 vaccine as part of a post-marketing commitment. Although this signals a delay in full approval, investors took the news as a positive sign that the regulatory process is progressing and that the vaccine remains on track for eventual full approval.

This vaccine maker is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.19 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +118.1%. Revenues are expected to be $71.84 million, down 23.5% 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 belongs to the Zacks Medical - Biomedical and Genetics industry. Another stock from the same industry, BioNTech SE Sponsored ADR BNTX, closed the last trading session 9.7% higher at $114.83. Over the past month, BNTX has returned 7.9%.

For BioNTech

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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