Why This Novavax Analyst Remains Bearish After COVID Vaccine Panel Vote

A Bank of America analyst remains bearish on Novavax, Inc NVAX after a regulatory panel approved Novavax’s Emergency Use Authorization request for Nuvaxovid, its COVID vaccine. Here's what investors need to know. 

The Novavax Analyst: Bank of America analyst Alec Stranahan maintained an Underperform rating on Novavax with a $35 price objective. 

The Novavax Takeaways: While there is a need to address the unvaccinated population in the United States, there are other vaccines available and supply has been a non-issue, Stranahan said in a note.

Those who are unvaccinated do not want to get a COVID vaccine for the most part, so increasing the supply of Novavax vaccines may do little to address that population, the analyst said. 

Novavax is on the hook to produce a mandated amount of vaccines through government contracts, but outside of that, demand is questionable, he said.

The European launch of the Novavax vaccine has been slow, Stranahan said. 

“But with the EU launch slow so far (see our analysis of deliveries), we question near-term demand, with a US EUA unlikely to bolster global use in our view.”

NVAX Price Action: Novavax’s stock opened Wednesday higher by more than 10% from its close on Tuesday. But, the stock quickly gave up those gains, trading back below its previous close price. The stock is currently trading around $46 a share, with a 52-week high of $277.80 and a 52-week low of $41.10.