77,694 Shares in BioNTech SE Sponsored ADR $BNTX Purchased by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of BioNTech SE Sponsored ADR (NASDAQ:BNTX) in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 77,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,905,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Quantum Portfolio Management LLC bought a new position in BioNTech in the 1st quarter worth about $203,000. USS Investment Management Ltd raised its stake in shares of BioNTech by 1.2% during the first quarter. USS Investment Management Ltd now owns 32,577 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,854,000 after acquiring an additional 382 shares in the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA boosted its holdings in shares of BioNTech by 48.4% in the first quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 131,798 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,236,000 after purchasing an additional 42,960 shares during the period. Ground Swell Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BioNTech in the first quarter valued at approximately $258,000. Finally, Banque Cantonale Vaudoise grew its stake in BioNTech by 1,361.4% in the first quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise now owns 3,858 shares of the company’s stock worth $343,000 after purchasing an additional 3,594 shares in the last quarter. 15.52% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, COO Sierk Poetting sold 50,000 shares of BioNTech stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $110.56, for a total transaction of $5,528,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 399,387 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $44,156,226.72. The trade was a 11.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 19.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

BioNTech Price Performance

NASDAQ BNTX opened at $90.40 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $22.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -15.37 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 8.80 and a quick ratio of 8.74. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $91.50 and its 200 day moving average price is $97.90. BioNTech SE Sponsored ADR has a 1 year low of $79.52 and a 1 year high of $124.00.

BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The company reported ($2.26) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($2.52) by $0.26. The company had revenue of $136.71 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $207.42 million. BioNTech had a negative return on equity of 5.30% and a negative net margin of 44.39%.The firm’s revenue was down 35.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($1.73) EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that BioNTech SE Sponsored ADR will post -5.79 earnings per share for the current year.

BioNTech declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase program on Thursday, May 7th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the company to purchase up to 4.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on the company. Wall Street Zen lowered BioNTech from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, May 23rd. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $130.00 target price on shares of BioNTech in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of BioNTech in a research note on Monday, July 6th. UBS Group raised BioNTech from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $117.00 to $135.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on BioNTech from $150.00 to $140.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $129.12.

BioNTech Profile

BioNTech SE (NASDAQ: BNTX) is a Germany-based biotechnology company that develops next-generation immunotherapies and vaccines, with a primary focus on messenger RNA (mRNA) technology. Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Mainz, BioNTech advances a platform approach to design and manufacture therapeutics across oncology, infectious diseases and other high unmet-need areas. The company is publicly traded on the NASDAQ exchange and became widely known for its rapid development and global deployment of an mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine in collaboration with Pfizer.

BioNTech’s core activities include discovery research, clinical development and manufacturing of mRNA-based medicines, personalized cancer immunotherapies, engineered cell therapies, and antibody- and protein-based therapeutics.