Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Put Options on Maravai LifeSciences (NASDAQ:MRVI)

Maravai LifeSciences Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRVI) was the target of some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Stock traders purchased 1,002 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 1,791% compared to the average daily volume of 53 put options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on MRVI shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Maravai LifeSciences from $4.00 to $4.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Maravai LifeSciences in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Maravai LifeSciences presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $5.25.

Maravai LifeSciences Price Performance

NASDAQ:MRVI opened at $3.31 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $3.41 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $2.87. Maravai LifeSciences has a 52 week low of $1.66 and a 52 week high of $6.21. The stock has a market cap of $845.12 million, a PE ratio of -3.93 and a beta of 0.33. The company has a quick ratio of 4.56, a current ratio of 5.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74.

Maravai LifeSciences (NASDAQ:MRVI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported ($0.08) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.06) by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $41.63 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $49.02 million. Maravai LifeSciences had a negative return on equity of 22.42% and a negative net margin of 62.88%. As a group, analysts forecast that Maravai LifeSciences will post -0.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Maravai LifeSciences news, Director Gregory T. Lucier acquired 48,528 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 8th. The shares were bought at an average price of $3.67 per share, with a total value of $178,097.76. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 155,123 shares in the company, valued at $569,301.41. This represents a 45.53% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Bernd Brust bought 216,212 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 13th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $3.25 per share, with a total value of $702,689.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 466,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,517,005.75. This trade represents a 86.29% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have bought a total of 566,771 shares of company stock valued at $1,880,244 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 2.11% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Maravai LifeSciences

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Callan Family Office LLC bought a new position in shares of Maravai LifeSciences during the second quarter worth $25,000. Ethic Inc. purchased a new stake in Maravai LifeSciences in the 2nd quarter worth $26,000. Sprott Inc. bought a new position in shares of Maravai LifeSciences during the 3rd quarter valued at about $29,000. McAdam LLC purchased a new position in shares of Maravai LifeSciences during the first quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, Quantessence Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Maravai LifeSciences during the third quarter valued at about $31,000. 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.