Royal Bank of Canada Reaffirms Sector Perform Rating for Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA)

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA)‘s stock had its “sector perform” rating reaffirmed by research analysts at Royal Bank of Canada in a note issued to investors on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $75.00 price target on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 14.17% from the company’s current price.

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on the company. Piper Sandler cut their target price on Moderna from $157.00 to $115.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “in-line” rating and set a $120.00 price target on shares of Moderna in a research report on Thursday, June 27th. Oppenheimer downgraded Moderna from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Leerink Partners cut their target price on shares of Moderna from $60.00 to $48.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Moderna from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $88.00 to $70.00 in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $100.44.

Moderna Stock Performance

Shares of Moderna stock opened at $65.69 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 3.92, a current ratio of 4.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. Moderna has a 52 week low of $62.55 and a 52 week high of $170.47. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $90.07 and its two-hundred day moving average is $110.76. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.18 billion, a P/E ratio of -4.19 and a beta of 1.68.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported ($3.33) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($3.47) by $0.14. Moderna had a negative net margin of 116.18% and a negative return on equity of 21.35%. The firm had revenue of $241.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $128.41 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($3.62) EPS. The company’s revenue was down 29.9% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Moderna will post -9.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Moderna

In other Moderna news, President Stephen Hoge sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $121.12, for a total value of $1,816,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now owns 1,442,089 shares in the company, valued at $174,665,819.68. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CFO James M. Mock sold 1,321 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.39, for a total transaction of $104,874.19. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 8,600 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $682,754. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, President Stephen Hoge sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $121.12, for a total value of $1,816,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now owns 1,442,089 shares in the company, valued at approximately $174,665,819.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 93,158 shares of company stock worth $11,167,312 over the last three months. 15.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Moderna

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of MRNA. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Moderna in the 2nd quarter worth about $26,000. Family Firm Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Moderna in the second quarter valued at about $33,000. Cedar Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Moderna by 45.0% in the first quarter. Cedar Wealth Management LLC now owns 290 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Moderna during the 1st quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, Bank & Trust Co purchased a new position in shares of Moderna during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $36,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.33% of the company’s stock.

About Moderna

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.