Why Is GeoVax (NASDAQ:GOVX) Stock Up 80% Today?

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  • A notice from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office sent GeoVax (GOVX) stock soaring on Wednesday.
  • At one point, GOVX stock rallied almost 100% in the session.
  • Hopeful news around its Zika vaccine candidate, GEO-ZM02, also has shares climbing.
GOVX stock - Why Is GeoVax (NASDAQ:GOVX) Stock Up 80% Today?

Source: shutterstock.com/PhotobyTawat

Shares of GeoVax (NASDAQ:GOVX) are shooting to the top of today’s trending ticker list. That’s as GOVX stock is higher by about 60% so far on Wednesday. At today’s high, shares were up almost 100%.

So, what’s driving the action?

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a “Notice of Allowance for Patent Application No. 17/000,768 titled, ‘Method for Generating a ZIKV Immune Response Utilizing a Recombinant Modified Vaccinia Ankara Vector Encoding the NS1 Protein.’”

If you haven’t heard of GeoVax, don’t feel bad. The company sports a tiny market capitalization and weighs in at just $32 million. According to the company, “GeoVax is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing novel therapies and vaccines for cancers and many of the world’s most threatening infectious diseases.”

The company said its Zika vaccine candidate, GEO-ZM02, is “constructed using our modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA) vector platform.” According to its preclinical studies, a single dose of GeoVax’s GEO-ZM02 “provided 100% protection against a lethal dose of Zika virus.”

What to Make of GOVX Stock Right Now

There are some great developments happening for GeoVax, and we’re seeing that play out in GOVX stock — especially today.

However, it goes beyond what the company is doing with GEO-ZM02. In fact, according to GeoVax:

“Our lead program in oncology is Gedeptin®, presently in a multicenter Phase 1/2 clinical trial for advanced head and neck cancers. Our lead infectious disease program is CM04S1, a next-generation Covid-19 vaccine targeting high-risk immunocompromised patient populations, currently in two Phase 2 clinical trials.”

I understand this is a lot of medical gibberish to some investors who just want to know whether GOVX stock is a buy. Unfortunately, the answer to that question is not so simple.

The company is not exactly pre-revenue, but its revenue has recently gone to zero. It has not posted any revenue on its income statement in the last two quarters. That said, keep in mind this is a clinical-stage biotechnology.

So despite a reasonably solid balance sheet — where current assets are more than five-fold the company’s total liabilities — this falls under the category of speculation.

So when evaluating whether or not to buy GOVX stock, keep this in mind.

On the date of publication, Bret Kenwell 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.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2023/01/why-is-geovax-nasdaqgovx-stock-up-80-today/.

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