Moderna Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NASDAQ:MRNA)

Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Traders acquired 128,500 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 157% compared to the typical volume of 49,924 put options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO James M. Mock sold 715 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.12, for a total transaction of $42,985.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 9,505 shares in the company, valued at $571,440.60. The trade was a 7.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders sold a total of 2,930 shares of company stock worth $217,170 over the last three months. 15.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Moderna

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Arizona PSPRS Trust purchased a new stake in Moderna in the third quarter valued at about $1,677,000. Benjamin Edwards Inc. raised its position in Moderna by 14,009.7% during the third quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 4,374 shares of the company’s stock valued at $292,000 after acquiring an additional 4,343 shares in the last quarter. Bellevue Group AG grew its holdings in Moderna by 2.4% in the third quarter. Bellevue Group AG now owns 1,600,836 shares of the company’s stock valued at $106,984,000 after purchasing an additional 37,101 shares during the period. Edgestream Partners L.P. boosted its stake in shares of Moderna by 228.6% in the third quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 46,286 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,093,000 after acquiring an additional 32,202 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Public Sector Pension Investment Board boosted its stake in shares of Moderna by 18.0% in the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 16,380 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,095,000 after acquiring an additional 2,500 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.33% of the company’s stock.

Moderna Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MRNA traded down $2.43 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $37.34. 2,043,982 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,609,926. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.83 and a beta of 1.69. Moderna has a 52 week low of $37.34 and a 52 week high of $170.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 4.39 and a quick ratio of 4.20. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $59.96 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $97.80.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.89) by $1.92. The firm had revenue of $1.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.25 billion. Moderna had a negative return on equity of 17.68% and a negative net margin of 43.77%. The business’s revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($1.39) earnings per share. Analysts predict that Moderna will post -9.43 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on MRNA. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $75.00 price objective on shares of Moderna in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on shares of Moderna from $178.00 to $139.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Moderna from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Moderna in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Moderna from $70.00 to $59.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $90.22.

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.