The Goldman Sachs Group Upgrades Nuvalent (NASDAQ:NUVL) to Strong-Buy

Nuvalent (NASDAQ:NUVL) was upgraded by research analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group to a “strong-buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on NUVL. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $130.00 target price (up from $110.00) on shares of Nuvalent in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Leerink Partners lifted their price target on Nuvalent from $125.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Nuvalent from $105.00 to $112.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 25th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $115.00 price objective on shares of Nuvalent in a research note on Tuesday, June 24th. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of Nuvalent from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $100.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, March 14th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $119.60.

Nuvalent Price Performance

Shares of Nuvalent stock opened at $78.01 on Monday. Nuvalent has a 1 year low of $55.54 and a 1 year high of $113.51. The company has a 50-day moving average of $74.99 and a 200 day moving average of $76.08. The firm has a market cap of $5.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -17.77 and a beta of 1.31.

Nuvalent (NASDAQ:NUVL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported ($1.18) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.14) by ($0.04). During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($0.69) EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Nuvalent will post -3.86 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Henry E. Pelish sold 8,630 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.87, for a total value of $689,278.10. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 63,101 shares in the company, valued at $5,039,876.87. This trade represents a 12.03% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Alexandra Balcom sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.02, for a total value of $1,600,400.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 61,734 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,939,954.68. This trade represents a 24.47% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 58,000 shares of company stock valued at $4,340,449 over the last three months. Insiders own 10.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Nuvalent

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Paradigm Biocapital Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Nuvalent by 7.3% in the 4th quarter. Paradigm Biocapital Advisors LP now owns 5,363,379 shares of the company’s stock worth $419,845,000 after purchasing an additional 363,379 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Nuvalent by 8.9% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,499,864 shares of the company’s stock worth $352,249,000 after buying an additional 366,239 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of Nuvalent by 11.8% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,450,602 shares of the company’s stock worth $102,878,000 after buying an additional 152,692 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Nuvalent by 12.3% during the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,442,384 shares of the company’s stock valued at $102,294,000 after buying an additional 157,809 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Woodline Partners LP grew its stake in shares of Nuvalent by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 1,204,927 shares of the company’s stock valued at $94,322,000 after acquiring an additional 11,248 shares during the period. 97.26% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Nuvalent

Nuvalent, Inc, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, engages in the development of therapies for patients with cancer. Its lead product candidates are NVL-520, a novel ROS1-selective inhibitor to address the clinical challenges of emergent treatment resistance, central nervous system (CNS)-related adverse events, and brain metastases that may limit the use of ROS1 tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) for patients with ROS proto-oncogene 1 (ROS1)-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) which is under the phase 2 portion of the ARROS-1 Phase 1/2 clinical trial; NVL-655, a brain-penetrant ALK-selective inhibitor, to address the clinical challenges of emergent treatment resistance, CNS-related adverse events, and brain metastases that might limit the use of first-, second-, and third-generation ALK inhibitors that is under the phase 2 portion of the ALKOVE-1 Phase 1/2 clinical trial; and NVL-330, a brain-penetrant human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-selective inhibitor designed to treat tumors driven by HER2ex20, brain metastases, and avoiding treatment-limiting adverse events including due to off-target inhibition of wild-type EGFR, which is expected to initiate phase 1 trial.