Maravai LifeSciences Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NASDAQ:MRVI)

Maravai LifeSciences Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRVI) was the target of some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Traders acquired 1,002 put options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 1,791% compared to the average volume of 53 put options.

Insider Buying and Selling at Maravai LifeSciences

In related news, CEO Bernd Brust acquired 216,212 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 13th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $3.25 per share, with a total value of $702,689.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 466,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,517,005.75. This trade represents a 86.29% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Gregory T. Lucier bought 48,528 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 8th. The shares were bought at an average price of $3.67 per share, with a total value of $178,097.76. Following the purchase, the director owned 155,123 shares in the company, valued at $569,301.41. The trade was a 45.53% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Insiders have acquired a total of 566,771 shares of company stock valued at $1,880,244 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 2.11% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of MRVI. First Eagle Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Maravai LifeSciences by 299.0% during the fourth quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 1,799,336 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,848,000 after buying an additional 1,348,405 shares in the last quarter. Brummer Multi Strategy AB acquired a new position in shares of Maravai LifeSciences in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,488,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Maravai LifeSciences during the 4th quarter worth approximately $226,000. R Squared Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Maravai LifeSciences during the 4th quarter worth approximately $51,000. Finally, M&T Bank Corp bought a new position in Maravai LifeSciences in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 50.25% of the company’s stock.

Maravai LifeSciences Stock Up 0.3%

NASDAQ MRVI opened at $3.27 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 5.29, a quick ratio of 4.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The company has a market cap of $836.17 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.89 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a 50 day moving average of $3.59 and a 200-day moving average of $3.12. Maravai LifeSciences has a 1-year low of $1.66 and a 1-year high of $5.03.

Maravai LifeSciences (NASDAQ:MRVI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported ($0.08) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.06) by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $41.63 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $49.02 million. Maravai LifeSciences had a negative return on equity of 22.42% and a negative net margin of 62.88%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Maravai LifeSciences will post -0.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Maravai LifeSciences from $4.00 to $4.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 15th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Maravai LifeSciences in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Maravai LifeSciences presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $5.25.

About Maravai LifeSciences

Maravai LifeSciences Holdings, Inc (NASDAQ: MRVI) is a life sciences company specializing in the development and supply of critical reagents and services for the development and manufacture of biologic therapies. The company’s offerings support a range of applications in genomics, molecular diagnostics, vaccine development and next-generation sequencing. Maravai’s platforms address key challenges in nucleic acid production, protein detection, epigenetic analysis and reagent quality across the biopharmaceutical industry.

Through its product portfolio, which includes proprietary mRNA capping reagents, lipid nanoparticle delivery systems, synthetic oligonucleotides and high-precision assay kits, Maravai enables customers to accelerate research and streamline manufacturing workflows.