Novavax (NASDAQ: NVAX) has gone from being a relatively unknown healthcare company to being one of the most popular vaccine makers in the world today. Although investors may be discouraged by the stock's performance over the past year, when looking at a wider range, heading back to 2020, it has been an impressive run for the company. Below, I'll look at how much a $1,000 investment back then would be worth today and whether it's worth taking a chance on the stock right now.

On Jan. 2, 2020, shares of Novavax closed at $4.49. Investing $1,000 into the stock at the time would have enabled you to acquire approximately 223 shares of the company. This was before the pandemic and before the company's successful COVID-19 vaccine would be in development. 

On Monday (Jan. 9), the healthcare stock closed at $12.12, which would put the value of those shares at $2,702.76, for a return of 170%. And that's with the stock crashing a mammoth 93% last year. The moral of the story is that when it comes to biotech, buying early can mean significant returns and volatility. But it doesn't always work out so well, as there's also plenty of risk in investing in unproven biotech stocks. At the time, Novavax was coming off a year in 2019 when revenue was just $18.7 million (primarily coming from grants), and its net loss was $132.7 million.

Continue reading

Source Fool.com