BioNTech SE (NASDAQ:BNTX) Short Interest Up 9.4% in December

BioNTech SE (NASDAQ:BNTX) was the target of a large growth in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,550,000 shares, a growth of 9.4% from the December 15th total of 2,330,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 806,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.2 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on BioNTech in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $170.00 price objective on the stock. Truist Financial started coverage on BioNTech in a research note on Friday, January 10th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $172.00 target price on the stock. TD Cowen decreased their target price on BioNTech from $132.00 to $122.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded BioNTech from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $90.00 to $137.00 in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on BioNTech from $124.00 to $122.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, BioNTech has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $142.72.

BioNTech Price Performance

BNTX stock traded down $0.83 during trading on Friday, hitting $111.93. 458,339 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 565,513. BioNTech has a 1 year low of $76.53 and a 1 year high of $131.49. The company has a 50-day moving average of $114.69 and a 200-day moving average of $104.59. The company has a current ratio of 7.33, a quick ratio of 7.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01.

BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX) last issued its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The company reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.26) by $2.07. The company had revenue of $1.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $514.08 million. BioNTech had a negative return on equity of 2.35% and a negative net margin of 15.16%. BioNTech’s quarterly revenue was up 38.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.73 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that BioNTech will post -3.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BioNTech

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Fred Alger Management LLC purchased a new stake in BioNTech during the 3rd quarter valued at about $59,485,000. Baillie Gifford & Co. lifted its holdings in BioNTech by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 8,308,071 shares of the company’s stock worth $986,750,000 after buying an additional 31,773 shares during the period. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in BioNTech by 63.3% in the 3rd quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 18,939 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,249,000 after buying an additional 7,340 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in BioNTech by 123.7% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 134,036 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,919,000 after buying an additional 74,119 shares during the period. Finally, Discovery Capital Management LLC CT purchased a new stake in BioNTech in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $2,467,000. 15.52% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

BioNTech Company Profile

BioNTech SE, a biotechnology company, develops and commercializes immunotherapies for cancer and other infectious diseases. The company is developing FixVac product candidates, including BNT111, which is in Phase II clinical trial for advance melanoma; BNT112 that is in Phase I/IIa clinical trial for prostate cancer; BNT113, which is in Phase II clinical trial to treat HPV 16+ head and neck cancers; BNT114 to treat triple negative breast cancer; BNT115, which is in Phase I clinical trial in ovarian cancer; and BNT116, which is in Phase I clinical trial for non-small cell lung cancer.