Politico said the FDA could approve Novavax's two-dose Covid-19 vaccine as soon as today
The shares of Novavax, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVAX) are up 2.2% at $71.30 this morning, after Politico reported that the pharmaceutical company's two-dose Covid-19 vaccine could receive approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as soon as today. The stock was on the rise yesterday as well, adding 3.9% after the U.S. government ordered 3.2 million doses of the jab ahead of the FDA's pending approval.
The stock has a ways to go, however, if it wants to work off its 51.2% year-to-date deficit. NVAX's most recent rally was cut short at the 140-day moving average. On the bright side though, the 100-day moving average sits below as potential support. Plus, month-over-month, the equity has added more than 71%.
Despite this, short sellers have been piling on, rising almost 30% in the last reporting period. The 15.73 million shares sold short now make up 20.3% of the stock's available float, and would take almost three days to cover, at NVAX's average daily pace of trading.
Options traders, on the other hand, have been much more bullish than usual. This is per Novavax stock's 10-day call/put volume ratio of 3.01 at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), which sits higher than 92% of readings from the past year. In other words, calls have been getting picked up at a much quicker-thank-usual clip of late.