Valneva (NASDAQ:VALN) Shares Gap Up – Still a Buy?

Valneva SE (NASDAQ:VALN) gapped up prior to trading on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $6.67, but opened at $7.40. Valneva shares last traded at $7.43, with a volume of 37,602 shares changing hands.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, HC Wainwright decreased their price objective on Valneva from $18.00 to $17.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday.

Valneva Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 2.25 and a current ratio of 2.78. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $5.10 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $5.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $642.77 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -60.85 and a beta of 1.98.

Institutional Trading of Valneva

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. ABC Arbitrage SA acquired a new position in Valneva during the 4th quarter valued at about $84,000. AlphaCentric Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Valneva by 33.7% in the 3rd quarter. AlphaCentric Advisors LLC now owns 118,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $717,000 after buying an additional 29,748 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company MN boosted its stake in shares of Valneva by 14.3% in the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 246,766 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,079,000 after buying an additional 30,859 shares during the last quarter. 11.39% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Valneva

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.