Needham Boosts Price Target for Vaxcyte (NASDAQ: PCVX) on Strong VAX-31 Trial Results

• Investment firm Needham significantly raised its price target for Vaxcyte (NASDAQ: PCVX), citing positive clinical trial data for its experimental vaccine.
• Vaxcyte's VAX-31 pneumococcal vaccine met all primary endpoints in its Phase 3 OPUS-1 trial, demonstrating noninferiority against existing competitor vaccines.
• The strong trial results led to a substantial surge in Vaxcyte shares and highlight a significant market opportunity in the adult pneumococcal vaccine sector.

Needham raises its price target for Vaxcyte to $122 from $110. Vaxcyte develops vaccines to prevent pneumococcal disease and competes with Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) and Merck (NYSE: MRK) in the adult vaccine market. At the $72.30 share price cited when Needham published its target, $122 represents about 68.7% potential upside.

The higher target follows positive results for VAX-31, Vaxcyte's experimental pneumococcal vaccine. In the Phase 3 OPUS-1 trial, VAX-31 met all 32 prespecified primary endpoints. These are measures chosen before a trial starts to judge whether a vaccine meets its main goals.

VAX-31 met the trial's noninferiority threshold for all 20 strains it shares with Pfizer's Prevnar 20 and 17 of 19 it shares with Merck's Capvaxive. Noninferiority means its immune response met a set standard for being no worse than the comparison vaccine. It also produced stronger responses against three strains unique to VAX-31 and strain 20B.

Vaxcyte shares rose 57% in Monday morning trading after the results. Jefferies called the data its “blue-sky” case and said Vaxcyte could win a significant share of the adult pneumococcal vaccine market. That market could reach $3 billion to $6 billion or more, as highlighted by Barron's.