Across the country, state and local governments, businesses and everyday folks are trying to figure out how to grapple with the resurging COVID-19 Delta variant.
President Joe Biden’s public health goal of getting 70% of Americans adults or about 165 million people at least one shot of the COVID-19 vaccine by July 4 has just been met, a month late.
Nationwide, new daily cases surpassed 100,000, which brings us back to the level we were in mid-February.
Fortunately, the average number of deaths from COVID-19 has not risen in tandem and is at an average of 464 over the past week, compared to the 3,400 deaths per day we saw at the height of the outbreak in January.
Louisiana, which is recording more new daily cases than ever before at 4,622 per day, just reinstated an indoor mask mandate for all public settings, including schools and colleges.
San Francisco and six other counties in the Bay Area said they’ll also reinstate mask mandates in public indoors spaces, regardless of vaccination status. New York City airport and transit workers will now have to choose whether to get vaccinated or take weekly tests, and Denver’s mayor said the city will mandate vaccinations for police officers, firefighters and other municipal employees, including staff members at schools, nursing homes, hospitals and jails.
The Florida Hospital Association said 96% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients are unvaccinated as cases spread among younger folks.
Interestingly, vaccination rates in the U.S. have started to rise again. The White House said over 864,000 vaccinations were carried out from Wednesday to Thursday, a rate last achieved July 3. In mid-April, almost two million people per day were getting their shots.
Just about half of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated, while some 58.4% have gotten at least one dose.
That leaves plenty of room for more vaccinations to take place to help blunt the impact of the Delta variant. And not just in the U.S., but around the world.
It’s why I’m so bullish on the fundamentally superior companies behind the COVID-19 vaccines.
Case in point: BioNTech SE (NASDAQ:BNTX).
BioNTech was founded back in 2008 with a goal to better understand how patients’ cancer tumors are different and why individual treatments were necessary.
And since its founding, BioNTech has developed more than 20 products and treated more than 440 patients with 17 different tumors. (You can read about a huge new acquisition the company recently made that will help it develop a cutting-edge cancer treatment here.)
The German biotech company has also collaborated with Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) to develop a COVID-19 vaccine.
I recommended the stock to my Growth Investor subscribers back in May, ahead of its first-quarter earnings announcements. The company went on to report stunning sales and earnings.
Total sales surged to 2.05 billion euros, up from 27.7 million euros in the first quarter of 2020. First-quarter earnings per share came in at $5.35, which crushed analysts’ expectations for $3.76 per share by 42.3%.
The company is scheduled to release its second-quarter earnings on Monday, August 9. Currently, Wall Street is calling for earnings to soar an astounding 2,077%, year-over-year, to $8.90 per share. Analysts estimate revenue will reach $3.83 billion, or sales growth of 7,717% over the same timeframe. Talk about putting the pedal to the medal!
And the catalysts to more sales and profits keep coming for these vaccine makers.
At the beginning of the month, both Pfizer and Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) announced they’ve raised prices for their COVID-19 vaccines to the European Union (EU), as the region hopes to inoculate at least 70% of its adult population by the end of summer.
That news comes amidst word that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is under intense pressure to give its final seal of approval to the three COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ).
So, when the New York Times reported on Wednesday that the FDA may approve the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in September, BioNTech shares rocketed over 22% to a new all-time intraday high. Since the company reported earnings May 3, it’s up 80%, compared to the S&P 500’s 6% gain and the NASDAQ Composite’s 6% increase over the same timeframe. So far, the vaccines from these companies have been given an Emergency Use Authorization from the FDA based, in part, on two months of clinical-trial data. Full authorization requires at least six months of data, along with plant inspections and more.
Pfizer is the only company that’s filed paperwork for full authorization. Moderna has said it is still filling out data submissions and JNJ said it will file for full approval in the fall.
Full authorization won’t change how widely available the vaccine now is in the U.S., but it will allow large organizations like the State University of New York system to impose vaccine mandates for students, which it cannot currently do according to state law.
Full FDA authorization will also make the vaccines eligible for booster doses by prescribers.
A June survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found over 30% of unvaccinated people said they’re more likely to get the shot if the FDA has given its final approval.
Clearly, there’s significant potential for all of these biotech companies, especially after full FDA approval, but I think BNTX stands to be one of the biggest winners.
The company also earns a “Strong Buy,” and a Total Grade of “A” from my Portfolio Grader, as well as an “A” for its Quantitative Grade, which represents institutional buying pressure under the stock.
So ahead of its earnings announcement Monday, not to mention the success of its COVID-19 vaccine, as wells the potential of its other cancer treatments, BioNTech is looking to reward its shareholders further.
Of course, BioNTech is not the only biotech company on my Growth Investor Buy List that’s working on a COVID-19 vaccine right now.
Another biotech I’m recommending to Growth Investor subscribers that’s developing its own vaccine also soared Wednesday, climbing over 17% for the day. The stock is up over 71% so far this year.
I should note that there are plenty of high-quality stocks not in the biotech space that could still make for worthy investments — especially during the bumpy summer months. In fact, I added three stocks to my Growth Investor Buy Lists last Friday that are defensive, high-dividend growth stocks that I anticipate will be incredibly resilient in the upcoming monthly.
Sincerely,
Louis Navellier
P.S. There’s a great divide opening up in America and investing in my Growth Investor stocks will help get you on the right side of it. On one side is a new aristocracy that’s amassing more wealth more quickly than any other group in American history. For people like me, the one percent, life has never been better, more prosperous.
On the other side, the opposite is happening. Wealth is flowing out of the pockets of ordinary Americans at an unprecedented rate.
What’s happening is only going to gather in strength over the coming decades. It certainly won’t weaken.
Few Americans even know that any of this is going on. I’ve never seen anyone from my side of the chasm step forward to explain any of these things.
It’s why I put together this video. In it, I’ll lay out exactly what is happening, including several key steps every American should take right now.
It doesn’t matter if you have $500 in savings or $5 million. You can benefit from the information in this video.
It’s free to watch and by doing so I know you’ll be ahead of everyone else struggling to understand what is really going on.
The Editor hereby discloses that as of the date of this email, the Editor, directly or indirectly, owns the following securities that are the subject of the commentary, analysis, opinions, advice, or recommendations in, or which are otherwise mentioned in, the essay set forth below:
BioNTech SE (BNTX)
Louis Navellier, who has been called “one of the most important money managers of our time,” has broken the silence in this shocking “tell all” video… exposing one of the most shocking events in our country’s history… and the one move every American needs to make today.
