Moderna’s (MRNA) “Overweight” Rating Reaffirmed at Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler reissued their overweight rating on shares of Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) in a research note published on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $214.00 price target on the stock.

MRNA has been the subject of several other reports. Canaccord Genuity Group upped their target price on Moderna from $91.00 to $106.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Moderna from $135.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Monday, June 3rd. Evercore ISI reiterated an in-line rating and issued a $120.00 target price on shares of Moderna in a report on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a buy rating and issued a $125.00 price target on shares of Moderna in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, William Blair reissued a market perform rating on shares of Moderna in a research report on Monday, April 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $134.02.

Moderna Price Performance

MRNA opened at $118.75 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $134.13 and a 200 day moving average of $111.96. Moderna has a 52-week low of $62.55 and a 52-week high of $170.47. The company has a quick ratio of 3.91, a current ratio of 4.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The stock has a market cap of $45.51 billion, a P/E ratio of -7.58 and a beta of 1.54.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The company reported ($3.07) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($3.59) by $0.52. Moderna had a negative return on equity of 20.10% and a negative net margin of 115.82%. The company had revenue of $167.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $93.26 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.19 EPS. Moderna’s revenue was down 91.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Moderna will post -7.46 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO James M. Mock sold 705 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.93, for a total value of $71,860.65. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 5,048 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $514,542.64. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CFO James M. Mock sold 705 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $101.93, for a total value of $71,860.65. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 5,048 shares in the company, valued at $514,542.64. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Noubar Afeyan sold 202,832 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $148.34, for a total value of $30,088,098.88. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 1,528,557 shares in the company, valued at approximately $226,746,145.38. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 411,255 shares of company stock valued at $56,118,931. Company insiders own 15.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Moderna

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Quadrant Capital Group LLC boosted its position in Moderna by 7.5% during the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 2,672 shares of the company’s stock worth $266,000 after purchasing an additional 187 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Moderna by 6,528.9% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 387,656 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,552,000 after purchasing an additional 381,808 shares in the last quarter. abrdn plc boosted its position in Moderna by 477.5% during the fourth quarter. abrdn plc now owns 483,574 shares of the company’s stock worth $48,091,000 after purchasing an additional 399,843 shares in the last quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board purchased a new position in Moderna during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,358,000. Finally, Hobbs Group Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Moderna in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $664,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.33% of the company’s stock.

Moderna Company Profile

Moderna, Inc, a biotechnology company, discovers, develops, and commercializes messenger RNA therapeutics and vaccines for the treatment of infectious diseases, immuno-oncology, rare diseases, autoimmune, and cardiovascular diseases in the United States, Europe, and internationally. Its respiratory vaccines include COVID-19, influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus, spikevax, and hMPV/PIV3 vaccines; latent vaccines comprise cytomegalovirus, epstein-barr virus, herpes simplex virus, varicella zoster virus, and human immunodeficiency virus vaccines; public health vaccines consists of Zika, Nipah, Mpox vaccines; and infectious diseases vaccines, such as lyme and norovirus vaccines.