The Company was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Rockville, Maryland.

Share Statistics (01-Mar-11)			FY 2008	FY 2009	% Chg	Q3 2009	Q3 2010	% Chg
Symbol	NVAX	Revenue, $Mn	1.06	0.33	-68.9%	0.20	0.17	-15.0%
Current price	$2.96	Gross marg.	0.0%	100.0%	–	–	–	–
52wk Range:	$1.94-$3.50	Oper. margin	–	-11653.2%	–	–	-6011.3%	–
Avg Vol (3m):	604,248	Net margin	-3400.9%	-11627.3%	241.9%	-3765%	-6094%	61.9%
Market Cap.	328.86M
Shares Outstanding	111.10M	EPS, $	-0.51	-0.43	-15.7%	-0.08	-0.10	25.0%

Source: Reuters.com, SEC Filings.

Investment Highlights

NVAX shares gained 13.85% a day after the vaccine developer announced a government contract worth up to $179.1 million to develop pandemic and seasonal influenza vaccines using its vaccine technology. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) awarded the Company $97 million over the first three years, with options for an additional two years, for a total potential value of $179.1 million.

“This is a unique opportunity for our company to apply the knowledge we have gained over the past five years to address a critical public health need,” said NVAX president and CEO Dr. Rahul Singhvi. “We thank the team at HHS-BARDA for this contract to advance this important new technology, which will ultimately help our nation and the world to be better prepared to respond quickly to influenza pandemics and emerging diseases.  This is a particularly satisfying day for all employees at Novavax to see the fruits of their labor over the past 5 years go toward such an important cause.”

NVAX addresses a broad range of infectious diseases worldwide using its advanced proprietary virus-like-particle (VLP) technology. NVAX states that VLPs mimic the external structure of viruses but lack the live genetic material that causes viral replication and infection.  VLPs can be designed quickly to match individual viral strains and be produced efficiently using portable cell-culture technology. NVAX’s VLP-based vaccine candidates are produced more rapidly than egg-based vaccines by using proprietary, portable, recombinant cell-culture technology.

“The 2009 H1N1 pandemic demonstrated the need for technologies that can provide vaccines more rapidly,” HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a statement. “These next-generation flu vaccines hold the potential to be even more effective and to make the first and last doses of vaccine available sooner than existing flu vaccines by weeks and months, which can save more lives during a pandemic as well as during seasonal flu outbreaks.”

During the contract’s three-year base period, NVAX will continue to develop its novel, clinical-stage influenza vaccines to address the Office of Biomedical Advanced Research and Develop Authority’s commitment to pandemic preparedness. NVAX intends to conduct safety and efficacy studies on its vaccines and validate its manufacturing processes toward FDA licensure.

Also recently, the Company announced that it had entered into an agreement with LG Life Sciences of South Korea. Under the agreement, LGLS  receives an exclusive license to manufacture, develop and commercialize influenza vaccines using NVAX’s recombinant VLP technology in South Korea. LGLS also receives a non-exclusive license to manufacture, develop and commercialize influenza VLP vaccines in certain other countries.

“This new partnership with LGLS is further validation of our VLP technology and, as we have done previously with our joint venture in India with Cadila Pharmaceuticals, further expands our development efforts into new territories,” Dr. Singhvi said in a statement.

NVAX hit a new 52-week high of $3.50 on Tuesday’s trading session, before settling at $$2.96.  Approximately 13.09 million shares have traded hands yesterday, versus the average daily volume of 621.70K shares.  NVAX is trading above its 50-day moving and 200-day moving averages of $2.31. At Tuesday’s closing market price, NVAX’s market capitalization stands at $328.86 million.

Visit NVAX at www.novavax.com

Financial Summary

NVAX reported a net loss of $10.4 million, or $0.10 per share, for the third quarter of 2010 compared to a net loss of $7.5 million, or $0.08 per share, for the third quarter of 2009.  For the nine months ended September 30, 2010, the net loss was $31.2 million, or $0.30 per share, compared to a net loss of $24.4 million, or $0.30 per share, for the same period in 2009.  The primary reason for the increased loss for the third quarter of 2010 as compared to the same period in 2009 was higher research and development spending to support the Company’s clinical trials related to its H1N1 and seasonal influenza vaccine candidates.  Research and development expenses for the third quarter of 2010 were $7.9 million as compared to $5.3 million in the same period in 2009.  General and administrative expenses were $2.8 million for the third quarter of 2010 as compared to $3.2 million in the same period in 2009.

As of September 30, 2010, the Company had $36.9 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments compared to $43.0 million as of December 31, 2009.

NVAX’s next earnings is expected to be released on March 07, 2011.

Source: Reuters.com, SEC Filings.

Analyst Consensus

This is the consensus forecast among five polled investment analysts. Against the Novavax Inc company.

Analyst Detail	Buy	Outperform	Hold	Underperform	Sell	No Opinion
Latest	2	3	0	0	0	0
4 weeks ago	2	2	0	0	0	0
2 months ago	2	2	0	0	0	0
3 months ago	2	2	0	0	0	0
Last year	1	1	0	0	0	0

The five analysts offering 12-month price targets for NVAX have a median target of 4.50, with a high estimate of 11.00 and a low estimate of 3.00. The median estimate represents a 73.08% increase from the last price of 2.60.

Source: markets.ft.com

Consensus Estimates Analysis

Source: http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/financialHighlights?symbol=NVAX.OQ

Technical Analysis

Source: http://stockcharts.com

NVAX is trading above its 20-day moving average. This is considered to be the sign of a bullish trend. There is added weight to this indication because the moving average is rising and suggests that there has been buying interest in this stock.

NVAX’s recent volatility has been greater than normal. This is evidenced by the increased distance between the upper and lower Bollinger Bands. These bands measure volatility using standard deviation and a large width is due to high volatility.

The MACD for NVAX currently indicates a strong bullish signal for two reasons. First, the MACD is above the signal line, a 9-day moving average. Second, the MACD is above 0, which implies that the underlying moving averages are trending higher.

Comparative Analysis

Source: Thomson Financial

Source: Yahoo Finance

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