Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) Stock Rating Lowered by Argus

Argus lowered shares of Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Wednesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the company. HSBC upgraded Moderna from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $58.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $75.00 price target on shares of Moderna in a report on Thursday, September 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Moderna from $59.00 to $45.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Berenberg Bank initiated coverage on shares of Moderna in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. They set a “hold” rating and a $42.00 target price for the company. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on shares of Moderna from $178.00 to $139.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $79.50.

Moderna Stock Performance

Shares of MRNA opened at $39.39 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $15.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.77 and a beta of 1.58. The company has a quick ratio of 4.20, a current ratio of 4.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The business’s 50 day moving average is $46.43 and its two-hundred day moving average is $80.38. Moderna has a 52-week low of $35.80 and a 52-week high of $170.47.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.89) by $1.92. The firm had revenue of $1.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.25 billion. Moderna had a negative net margin of 43.77% and a negative return on equity of 17.68%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($1.39) earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Moderna will post -9.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Moderna

In other Moderna news, CFO James M. Mock sold 715 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.12, for a total value of $42,985.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 9,505 shares in the company, valued at $571,440.60. This represents a 7.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Shannon Thyme Klinger sold 1,418 shares of Moderna stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.79, for a total value of $60,676.22. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 19,717 shares in the company, valued at approximately $843,690.43. This trade represents a 6.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 3,379 shares of company stock valued at $158,195. 15.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Moderna in the second quarter worth about $26,000. Family Firm Inc. acquired a new stake in Moderna during the second quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. bought a new stake in Moderna during the second quarter worth approximately $48,000. Plato Investment Management Ltd grew its position in Moderna by 230.4% in the second quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd now owns 413 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,000 after buying an additional 288 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Moderna by 365.6% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 731 shares of the company’s stock valued at $49,000 after buying an additional 574 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.