What happened
Biotech Novavax (NVAX 3.54%) was one of the better-performing stocks in its sector on Wednesday. The company's shares closed the day 5% higher, well eclipsing the 2.2% rise of the S&P 500 index, despite a fresh analyst price-target cut.
So what
China-based CFRA chopped its price target by over 20%, reducing it to $83 per share from the preceding $107. The motivation behind the adjustment was not immediately clear. In the past, like other notable biotechs, Novavax has been rather susceptible to analyst adjustments such as this one.
Image source: Getty Images.
While overall global COVID-19 cases and fatalities are dropping, significant outbreaks are occurring in Asia -- particularly in the very populous mainland China and in that country's densely populated enclave of Hong Kong.
Novavax's NVX-CoV2373, brand-named Nuvaxovid, isn't yet authorized or approved in China but has received such nods in other Asian countries such as Indonesia, Singapore, and South Korea. The jab has also been approved somewhat patchily in other jurisdictions around the world (the United Arab Emirates, the European Union, Canada, etc.). Crucially, however, it has not yet been given the green light in the U.S.
Now what
Given the outbreaks in Asia, the world is hardly out of the woods with COVID. Variants of the coronavirus have spread rapidly throughout the planet before, and it's eminently possible some could repeat the feat.
Hopefully for all of us, this won't occur, but in case it does, we'll need all of the preventive care we can get. Nuvaxovid will be one of a growing number of weapons we'll have at our disposal for this purpose.
