In a statement reported by Russian news agency RIA Novosti, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russian researchers have registered the first vaccine in the world against infection with the novel coronavirus, which will begin full-scale production in September and distribution in October. President Putin is so optimistic about the new fax – called “Sputnik V” to listen back to Russia’s “Sputnik moment” in 1957, when Russia launched the world’s first satellite – that he says his own daughter has already tried it.
Disappointing? Hardly, says HC Wainwright analyst Vernon Bernardino. In fact, at a new share price of less than $ 130 per share, Novavax’s sale now gives investors the opportunity to buy Novavax at an enormous discount – and before the shares double to $ 290 a share.
click here) “data-reactid =” 19 “> In fact, this is exactly what Bernardino thinks investors should do, as he repeats his ‘buy’ rating and $ 290 price target on Novavax stock. (To set Bernardino’s track record view, click here)
You see, Russia can be very happy with its new vaccine. In fact, Putin claims that Sputnik V “works reasonably effectively, it forms a stable immunity and, as I repeat, has passed all the necessary checks” – and is, that someone may be missing the point, “the first” vaccine to be registered by any nation that is ready to use. However, it is worth noting that Sputnik V has in fact not yet undergone Phase 3 clinical trials, and indeed, data on the adopted Phase 1 and Phase 2 vaccines have not yet been published.
Meanwhile, Novavax’s competing NVX-CoV2373 vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 novel coronavirus is also making some impressive progress. Phase 1 and phase 1/2 clinical trial results are both described as “positive”, showing “very robust results in terms of anti-antibody IgG response, viral neutralization versus convalescent serum, T cell response with Matrix-M adjuvanted vaccine, safety and reactogenicity “- and Novavax has actually published the results to prove it.
A full-scale clinical trial 2 trial of NVX-CoV2373 is underway, and consists of 1,500 total scheduled patients (against the less than 100 patients reportedly experimented with Sputnik V’s Phase 2), and Bernardino is looking forward to it. to see “positive affirmation of effectiveness and safety” from those, perhaps as early as the end of this quarter. And since Novavax has already established production relationships with “partners for vaccine development around the world”, the production of the much better researched NVX-CoV2373 should not be too far behind Russia’s recovery of the dubious Sputnik V vaccine.
Bernardino predicts the distribution of “a minimum of 1B doses for India and low- and middle-income countries,” with additional outlets in Canada, Australia and Southeast Asia. Combined with an expected 500 million doses prepared in the US market, this analyst estimates that total production worldwide could reach 2 billion doses.
On top of all that, Bernardino points out that Novavax just came out of a Q2 2020 revenue report that showed revenue much stronger than expected – $ 50.1 million – and losses much slimmer than feared – just $ 0.30 per share.
Better-than-expected financial results, combined with continued success on the R&D front, allow this analyst to convince Novavax to remain an attractive stock – whether it is a vaccine first or not.
Overall, Wall Street here seems to agree with Bernardino. NVAX shares have 5 recent analyst ratings, of which 4 are Buy and only 1 is a sale – making the analyst’s view a moderate Buy. Shares are priced at $ 124.42, and the average price target of $ 227.60 suggests that the stock has room for 83% upside growth in the coming year.
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