How to buy and short Novavax shares

How to buy Novavax shares: investing and trading

You have two options when it comes to buying Novavax shares – investing in the stock outright and trading its share price.

Investing in Novavax shares

Investing in Novavax shares means you’re buying physical shares and taking direct ownership of them. You could be eligible to receive dividends if the company grants them, and you’ll also have shareholder voting rights.

Trading Novavax stock

Trading Novavax stock means you’ll have the opportunity to speculate on both rising and falling share prices without taking ownership of any assets. You’ll ‘go long’ (buy) if you think the share price will rise or ‘go short’ (sell) if you think it’ll fall.

Follow these steps if you want to trade Novavax shares

1. Create an account or log in
2. Search for ‘Novavax’ on our trading platform
3. Select ‘buy’ to go long or ‘sell’ to go short in the deal ticket
4. Set your position size and take steps to manage your risk
5. Open and monitor your position

With us, you’ll do this using leveraged derivatives like CFDs. Read about the difference between CFD trading, and see our full list of trading costs and charges.

Trading on leverage means you only need to put down a deposit – called margin – to open a position.

Please note that trading on margin could lower the cost of opening a position, but it magnifies your risk as profits and losses are based on the full value of the trade (not just the deposit). Make sure you understand and manage your risk before committing to a trade. See our full list of trading costs.

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How to short Novavax shares

You might think that the Novavax share price isn’t going to rise in the near future, in which case you can go short (sell). You’ll make a profit if your prediction is correct – ie the share price goes down – and you’ll make a loss if the share price goes up. Read more about going short on a stock or follow these steps:

1. Create or log in to your trading account
2. Search for ‘Novavax’ on our platform
3. Select ‘sell’ in the deal ticket
4. Choose your position size
5. Open and monitor your position

How to sell or close your Novavax investment or trade

You can sell your Novavax investment, or close your trade, if you want to lock in profits or limit losses. Here’s how:

Selling Novavax shares

1. Log in to your trading account
2. Go to the positions tab and select ‘Novavax’
3. Select ‘sell’ in the deal ticket
4. Choose your position size
5. Close your position

A brief history of Novavax

Novavax, a US biotech company, was established in 1987 to drive experimental vaccine development. In its more than 30 years, though, it has never brought a vaccine to market. In 1995, it listed on the NASDAQ (US Tech 100 with us) under the ticker NVAX.

Notable dates and developments:

• 2013: Novavax acquires a Swedish company named Isconova AB, and names its new subsidiary Novavax AB
• 2015: the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation donates $89 million towards vaccine development for human respiratory syncytial virus; Novavax completes phase 1 and phase 2 trials for Ebola and RSV vaccines, respectively
• 2016: Novavax experiences failure of its first phase 3 trial (respiratory syncytial virus)
• 2019: the respiratory syncytial virus vaccine clinical trial fails again
• 2020: Novavax receives fast track status for an improved flu vaccine and announces development of a Covid-19 vaccine
• 2021: phase 3 trials for the Covid-19 vaccine commence

What’s the Novavax business model?

Novavax’s business model is centred around developing vaccines that prevent infectious diseases, such as Covid-19, seasonal flu, Ebola and RSV. With science and technology at the core of the business, its main aim is to create a healthier society through innovative vaccines.

Novavax partners with various governments, research centres and biopharma organisations – collaborating to bring advanced products to market. It’s most recent development, in partnership with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), is the NVX-CoV2373 vaccine for Covid-19. The UK phase 3 clinical trial revealed a 96% efficacy rate against the first strain of Covid-19 and 86% against the B.1.1.7 variant.¹

Reported revenue for the year ending December 2020 was $475.5 million, up from $18.6 million in the previous year. The enormous increase (2456.4%) was attributed to its involvement with CEPI and Operation Warp Speed (OWS). This US government programme plans to deliver millions of Covid-19 vaccines in 2021.

Novavax share price: how to analyse Novavax shares

There are two methods you can use to analyse Novavax shares, though it would be wise to combine them. You can use technical and fundamental analysis to study the NVAX share price.

• Technical analysis entails using chart patterns, technical indicators and historical price action to help you predict future price movements
• Fundamental analysis looks at elements such as a company’s net revenue, profit and loss statements, as well as wider macroeconomic factors, to help you determine share price movements

Learn all about technical and fundamental analysis using IG Academy.

Footnotes:

¹ Novavax, 2021