Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) saw its shares rise yesterday amid positive social media momentum, but they have been just as quick to fall today due to bad news. Negative delivery statistics have pushed NVAX stock down as investor confidence in vaccine stocks continues to decline.
What’s Happening With NVAX Stock
Novavax began this week on a high note. Its Covid-19 vaccine gained regulatory approval in Australia and caught the attention of many social media users. This momentum helped push NVAX stock up by almost 10%.
Unfortunately, this growth spurt would prove short lived. Today brought the news that Novavax has underdelivered on its global vaccine distribution promises. NVAX began falling early this morning and despite a slight uptick, it is currently down by more than more than 13%. Even with yesterday’s gains, it remains in the red by 35% for the month.
Why It Matters
It should be noted that Novavax hasn’t just underdelivered. Reuters reports that it has also delayed vaccine shipments to Europe as well as to the Philippines. The company claims to have shipped 10 million doses to Indonesia and that several million reached Australia yesterday. Sill, these figures represent a fraction of the 2 billion that Novavax had expected to make available in 2022.
Even before the negative vaccine sentiment took hold across Wall Street, Novavax was already on shaky ground. InvestorPlace contributor Shanthi Rexaline advised investors to avoid it until the company could show real results. Her colleague Ian Bezek expressed a similar sentiment. “It’s facing a lot of uncertainty, and Novavax needs to act quickly to generate sales while it still has a golden opportunity to do so,” he said of NVAX stock.
Both writers noted that the company has potential to succeed, but the odds are currently stacked against it. The company’s certainty that it would be able to deliver 2 billion vaccine doses helped boost NVAX stock in September 2021. Now that it has so far failed to deliver, there’s not a lot to inspire investor confidence. Could it pull off a miracle?
Macroeconomic trends are also working against Novavax. As of now, we are facing an economy in which vaccine demand will decrease. Consumers will be more likely to turn to Pfizer(NYSE:PFE) and Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA), the clear winners of the vaccine race that are already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
What It Means
The future of the vaccine race as a whole is uncertain. While the possibility of future variants is ever present, there is less and less reason to believe that Novavax will make up the ground it has lost to Pfizer and Moderna.
On the date of publication, Samuel O’Brient did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
