Benzinga | Jan 24, 2022 01:31PM EST

Looking At Novavax's Recent Whale Trades

Someone with a lot of money to spend has taken a bearish stance on Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX).

And retail traders should know.

We noticed this today when the big position showed up on publicly available options history that we track here at Benzinga.

Whether this is an institution or just a wealthy individual, we don't know. But when something this big happens with NVAX, it often means somebody knows something is about to happen.

So how do we know what this whale just did?

Today, Benzinga's options scanner spotted 11 uncommon options trades for Novavax.

This isn't normal.

The overall sentiment of these big-money traders is split between 27% bullish and 72%, bearish.

Out of all of the special options we uncovered, 8 are puts, for a total amount of $795,627, and 3 are calls, for a total amount of $305,379.

What's The Price Target?

Taking into account the Volume and Open Interest on these contracts, it appears that whales have been targeting a price range from $65.0 to $170.0 for Novavax over the last 3 months.

Volume & Open Interest Development

In terms of liquidity and interest, the mean open interest for Novavax options trades today is 551.3 with a total volume of 1,160.00.

In the following chart, we are able to follow the development of volume and open interest of call and put options for Novavax's big money trades within a strike price range of $65.0 to $170.0 over the last 30 days.

Novavax Option Volume And Open Interest Over Last 30 Days

Biggest Options Spotted:

Symbol PUT/ Trade Sentiment Exp. Strike Total Trade Open Volume CALL Type Date Price Price InterestNVAX PUT SWEEP BULLISH 01/20/ $170.00 $457.9K 607 62 23NVAX CALL TRADE BEARISH 01/19/ $75.00 $234.5K 42 73 24NVAX PUT TRADE BULLISH 01/20/ $140.00 $65.0K 4.0K 16 23NVAX PUT TRADE NEUTRAL 03/18/ $70.00 $65.0K 151 52 22NVAX PUT TRADE NEUTRAL 01/20/ $105.00 $53.0K 402 30 23

Where Is Novavax Standing Right Now?

* With a volume of 9,160,353, the price of NVAX is down -11.64% at $74.8.

* RSI indicators hint that the underlying stock may be oversold.

* Next earnings are expected to be released in 35 days.

What The Experts Say On Novavax:

* Cowen & Co. downgraded its action to Outperform with a price target of $150

Options are a riskier asset compared to just trading the stock, but they have higher profit potential. Serious options traders manage this risk by educating themselves daily, scaling in and out of trades, following more than one indicator, and following the markets closely.

If you are already an options trader or would like to get started, head on over to Benzinga Pro. Benzinga Pro gives you up-to-date news and analytics to empower your investing and trading strategy.