Wednesday’s Hot Stocks in Focus

Microvision Inc. (NASDAQ:MVIS) shares plummeted more than 26 percent this morning apparently after a series of tweets and retweets from short-seller Hindenburg Research on Tuesday. One of the tweets said, “We are short $MVIS. In a market gone mad, this $1.2 billion market cap corporate husk with almost no revenue or intellectual property value is a standout. It has risen 5,000% from lows this year on misguided retail euphoria over its LiDAR IP portfolio amid a broad EV bubble.” The Wednesday drop came just a day after MVIS share price skyrocketed more than 60 percent.

Novavax Inc. (NASDAQ:NVAX) shares closed higher today after an analyst at B.Riley reaffirmed a “Buy” rating for the Gaithersburg, Maryland-based vaccine development company, and set a price target of $223 for the stock. The price target set by analyst Mayank Mamtani is significantly higher than the stock’s current trading price of $127.65. Overall, most analysts are bullish on Novavax and the average price target for the stock is $209.

Altimmune Inc. (NASDAQ:ALT) just announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has put a clinical hold on its investigational new drug (IND) application for AdCOVID, which is a single-dose vaccine candidate to prevent the coronavirus. FDA has requested the clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company to provide further data related to chemistry, manufacturing, and controls. Altimmune share dived nearly 12 percent in the after-hours trading following the news.

Oaktree Acquisition Corp. (NYSE:OAC) shares hit a new 52-week high of $15.11 this morning after the Los Angeles, California-based company joined hands with Ocwen Financial Corp. (NYSE: OCN) to form the joint venture, named MAV Canopy HoldCo I, to acquire mortgage servicing rights (MSRs). The two companies are expected to invest around $250 million of equity capital through the newly formed venture for buying government-sponsored enterprise MSRs.

Paychex Inc. (NASDAQ:PAYX) shares slightly moved down on Wednesday despite reporting better-than-expected financial results for the second quarter. The company reported earnings of $272.4 million, or 75 cents per share for the quarter, slightly down from 72 cents per share in the comparable period last year. On an adjusted basis, profit came in at 73 cents per share, beating the consensus forecast of 66 cents. Revenue decreased 1 percent to $983.7 million, but surpassed analysts’ average estimate of $954.0 million