Here’s What $1,000 Invested in Vaccine Stocks Would Be Worth Now
The Briefing
- Three of seven COVID-19 vaccine stocks have outperformed the S&P 500 since the beginning of the global pandemic
- Novavax is the highest performing vaccine stock, returning 1,549% to shareholders
Vaccine Stocks During a Pandemic
It’s often said that with every crisis comes great opportunity.
While such catastrophes do create upheaval and uncertainty in financial markets, they can also lead to new opportunities for investors, as asset classes react to different environments.
Since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 to be a pandemic on March 11, 2020, the performance of vaccine stocks have been varied—but with some notable winners that notched triple or quadruple digit returns.
Here’s how much a $1,000 investment would be worth as of March 31, 2021, if you had put money into each vaccine stock at the start of the pandemic:
| Stock | Value of Investment | % Growth | Market Cap ($B) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Novavax | $16,491 | 1,549.1% | $14.3 |
| Moderna | $5,019 | 401.9% | $59.9 |
| BioNTech | $3,247 | 224.7% | $31.3 |
| Johnson & Johnson | $1,252 | 25.2% | $419.8 |
| Pfizer | $1,122 | 12.2% | $207.2 |
| AstraZeneca | $1,121 | 12.1% | $93.8 |
| Sanofi | $1,096 | 9.6% | $105.2 |
The Business of Vaccines
The returns on vaccine stocks have varied greatly. They are staggering in the case of Novavax and Moderna, but also seem quite underwhelming, when considering the likes of Sanofi, AstraZeneca, and Pfizer.
One factor for the discrepancy in stock price performance is the revenue potential from vaccine sales relative to the rest of the existing business, as vaccine sales will have a much greater impact on the fundamentals of smaller (Read more...)