Valneva (NASDAQ:VALN) Trading Up 6.2% – Here’s Why

Valneva SE (NASDAQ:VALN) shares were up 6.2% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $6.16 and last traded at $6.35. Approximately 13,553 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 49% from the average daily volume of 26,764 shares. The stock had previously closed at $5.98.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on VALN. Guggenheim cut their price objective on Valneva from $17.00 to $15.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 24th. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $17.00 price target on shares of Valneva in a research note on Monday, March 31st.

Valneva Stock Performance

The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $6.86 and a 200-day simple moving average of $5.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 2.78 and a quick ratio of 2.25. The stock has a market cap of $507.07 million, a P/E ratio of -48.00 and a beta of 1.85.

Valneva (NASDAQ:VALN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The company reported ($0.54) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.22) by ($0.32). Valneva had a negative return on equity of 3.93% and a negative net margin of 4.35%. The firm had revenue of $56.48 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $55.64 million. On average, equities analysts expect that Valneva SE will post 0.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Valneva

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. GAMMA Investing LLC purchased a new position in shares of Valneva in the first quarter worth about $94,000. Wells Fargo & Company MN boosted its stake in shares of Valneva by 14.3% during the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 246,766 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,079,000 after purchasing an additional 30,859 shares during the period. Finally, ABC Arbitrage SA bought a new position in shares of Valneva in the fourth quarter worth approximately $84,000. 11.39% of the stock is 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.