Moderna’s (MRNA) “Outperform” Rating Reiterated at Royal Bank of Canada

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reaffirmed by investment analysts at Royal Bank of Canada in a report released on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $125.00 target price on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price target indicates a potential upside of 17.16% from the stock’s current price.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. HSBC reiterated a “reduce” rating and issued a $86.00 price objective (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Moderna in a research note on Monday, February 26th. Oppenheimer upgraded Moderna from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $142.00 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 2nd. Canaccord Genuity Group initiated coverage on Moderna in a research note on Wednesday, November 29th. They set a “hold” rating and a $82.00 target price for the company. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Moderna in a research report on Thursday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Moderna from $93.00 to $90.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, December 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $129.82.

Moderna Trading Down 3.5 %

Shares of Moderna stock traded down $3.90 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $106.69. The stock had a trading volume of 1,627,438 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,371,825. The firm has a market cap of $40.85 billion, a P/E ratio of -8.66 and a beta of 1.60. The company has a quick ratio of 3.36, a current ratio of 3.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $98.79 and a two-hundred day moving average of $93.49. Moderna has a 12-month low of $62.55 and a 12-month high of $163.24.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The company reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.78) by $1.33. Moderna had a negative return on equity of 10.23% and a negative net margin of 68.84%. The firm had revenue of $2.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.53 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.61 earnings per share. Moderna’s revenue was down 44.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Moderna will post -7.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moderna

In other news, CFO James M. Mock sold 772 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $109.75, for a total transaction of $84,727.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 3,632 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $398,612. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CFO James M. Mock sold 772 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $109.75, for a total transaction of $84,727.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 3,632 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $398,612. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, President Stephen Hoge sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.90, for a total value of $1,558,500.00. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 1,516,063 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $157,518,945.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 50,021 shares of company stock worth $5,211,442. 15.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Moderna

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of MRNA. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Moderna during the fourth quarter valued at $491,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Moderna by 22.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 33,907,072 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,372,058,000 after acquiring an additional 6,248,623 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Moderna in the fourth quarter worth approximately $206,000. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Moderna by 28.8% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,225,579 shares of the company’s stock worth $718,584,000 after purchasing an additional 1,614,460 shares during the period. Finally, TT International Asset Management LTD grew its position in Moderna by 75.0% during the fourth quarter. TT International Asset Management LTD now owns 14,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,392,000 after purchasing an additional 6,000 shares in the last quarter. 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.