I have also noticed that NVAX has a propensity to rally big pre- market then trail off during the day. When you factor in the insider buying and the copy and paste I found on Seeking Alpha this AM it gives me courage to hold on to a technology that is fantastic. Please re,ember that there are bigger players and other maybe equal technologies that are out there. Here is the cut and paste from today.
1. Novavax (NVAX), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on developing recombinant protein nanoparticle vaccines to address a range of infectious diseases.
(click to enlarge)
Insider buying by insider (last 30 days)
Timothy Hahn purchased 21,000 shares on June 10 and currently holds 71,000 shares or less than 0.1% of the company. Dr. Hahn is Senior Vice President, Manufacturing and Process Development.
Gregory Glenn purchased 2,000 shares on June 6-7 and currently holds 31,000 shares or less than 0.1% of the company. Dr. Glenn is Senior Vice President, Chief Medical Officer of the company.
James Young purchased 100,000 shares on June 6 and currently holds 400,000 shares or 0.3% of the company. James Young joined Novavax's Board of Directors in April 2010 and was appointed Chairman in April 2011.
Insider buying by calendar month
Here is a table of Novavax's insider trading activity by calendar month.
Month Insider buying / shares Insider selling / shares
June 2013 123,000 0
May 2013 0 0
April 2013 0 79,000
March 2013 100,000 0
February 2013 0 0
January 2013 0 0
The month of June has seen the most insider buying this year.
Financials
The company reported the first-quarter financial results on May 7 with the following highlights:
Revenue $3.8 million
Net loss $10.0 million
Cash $45.4 million
Debt $2.0 million
Upcoming milestones
(click to enlarge)
Competition
The biopharmaceutical industry and the vaccine market are intensely competitive and are characterized by rapid technological progress. Novavax's technology is based upon utilizing the baculovirus expression system in insect cells to make VLPs and recombinant protein micelle vaccines. Novavax believes this system offers many advantages when compared to other technologies and is uniquely suited for developing seasonal and pandemic influenza vaccines, as well as other infectious diseases, including Novavax's vaccine candidate against RSV.
There are a number of companies developing and selling vaccines for seasonal and pandemic influenza employing historic vaccine technology, as well as new technologies. The table below provides a list of major vaccine competitors and corresponding licensed influenza vaccine technologies.
Company Competing Technology Description
Sanofi Pasteur, SA (SNY) Inactivated sub-unit (egg-based)
MedImmune, LLC (a subsidiary of AstraZeneca PLC (AZN)) Nasal, live attenuated (egg-based)
GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK) Inactivated split-vaccine (egg-based)
Novartis, Inc. (NVS) Inactivated sub-unit (cell and egg-based)
Merck & Co., Inc. (MRK) Inactivated sub-unit (egg-based)
Protein Sciences Corporation Recombinant HA trivalent (insect cell-based)
My analysis
There have been three different insiders buying the shares and there have not been any insiders selling the shares during the last 30 days. The company has insider ownership of 0.66%. There are seven analyst buy ratings, zero neutral ratings and zero sell ratings with an average target price of $4.21. The company will announce data from a Phase 1 RSV trial in elderly patients this month. I currently have a long position in the stock.
PETER