Why Novavax, Inc. Shares Popped Today

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of biopharmaceutical company Novavax climbed 10% today after its quarterly results topped Wall Street expectations.

So what: The stock has soared in recent months on optimism over Novavax's development progress, and today's Q4 results -- net loss of $14.1 million on a revenue spike of 92% -- only reinforce those good vibes. In fact, Novavax ended 2013 with $133.1 million in cash and marginal debt on its balance sheet, giving analysts plenty of confidence in its ability to fully fund its RSV vaccine in the U.S.

Now what: Don't expect the operating momentum to slow anytime soon. "This year we plan to report top-line results from our ongoing RSV and influenza studies, initiate our first RSV clinical trial in pregnant women and report top-line results from the first study of our H7N9 avian influenza vaccine candidate with our Matrix-M adjuvant," said President and CEO Stan Erck. "These will be important milestones for these programs for which I anticipate continued success in 2014." Of course, with the stock up more than 90% over the past six months and trading at a 60-plus price-to-sales, much of that success might already be baked into the valuation.

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The article Why Novavax, Inc. Shares Popped Today originally appeared on Fool.com.

Brian Pacampara has no position in any stocks mentioned, and neither does The Motley Fool. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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