Stocks in The News: NVAX, NOK, BHC
3:01 pm Wednesday, August 31st, 2022
It’s been a horrendous stretch for Novavax (NASDAQ:NVAX) stock, and it’s not getting any better on Wednesday. Shares of NVAX stock are down 6.5% today. If it ends lower this week, it will mark the stock’s fourth straight weekly decline. Currently, it’s down almost 50% amid that stretch.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved omicron-specific booster shots from Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA). The new booster shots are expected to hit the market after Labor Day weekend. However, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has to sign off the new boosters in order for pharmacies to administer them. The CDC will be reviewing the recent data on Thursday and Friday of this week and then making its call.
Share of Nokia (NYSE:NOK) are up about 5% today as the company is currently in the process of buying back shares. Yesterday, the Finnish technology company bought back 502,600 shares. The day before that, Nokia bought back 504,000 shares. As of today, the company owns 76.52 million shares and has purchased shares several times this month.
Nokia announced the initiation of its EUR 600 million share buyback program last February. The program received authorization to return cash to shareholders over a period of two years during the company’s annual general meeting last year. The first phase of the program, which has a maximum aggregate purchase price of EUR 300 million, started on Feb. 14 and will last until Dec. 22.
In today’s rather volatile session, investors looking for big movers do have their fair share to consider. Among the biggest gainers in today’s market is Bausch Health (NYSE:BHC). As of early afternoon trading, BHC stock is up approximately 17% in a rather surprising move.
This move is surprising considering the apparent lack of drivers for such an outsized move. Bausch Health did announce today a rather convoluted plan to swap out existing debt for new debt, at interest rates between 9% and 11%.
