AIA Group Ltd Boosts Stock Holdings in Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA)

AIA Group Ltd grew its position in shares of Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) by 2.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 14,264 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 365 shares during the period. AIA Group Ltd’s holdings in Moderna were worth $1,419,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. RB Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Moderna by 7.5% in the first quarter. RB Capital Management LLC now owns 2,267 shares of the company’s stock worth $391,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares during the last quarter. Synovus Financial Corp boosted its holdings in Moderna by 8.0% in the first quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 4,049 shares of the company’s stock worth $704,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Moderna by 5.1% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 987,478 shares of the company’s stock worth $170,121,000 after purchasing an additional 47,755 shares during the last quarter. Blair William & Co. IL boosted its holdings in Moderna by 12.4% in the first quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 15,611 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,689,000 after purchasing an additional 1,724 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. raised its position in Moderna by 41.4% in the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 58,160 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,019,000 after acquiring an additional 17,031 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.33% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, President Stephen Hoge sold 15,000 shares of Moderna stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.02, for a total transaction of $1,575,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now directly owns 1,486,241 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $156,085,029.82. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Moderna news, CFO James M. Mock sold 705 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.93, for a total value of $71,860.65. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 5,048 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $514,542.64. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, President Stephen Hoge sold 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.02, for a total transaction of $1,575,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now directly owns 1,486,241 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $156,085,029.82. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 94,954 shares of company stock valued at $9,983,276. Company insiders own 15.70% of the company’s stock.

Moderna Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MRNA opened at $102.85 on Friday. Moderna, Inc. has a 52 week low of $62.55 and a 52 week high of $144.43. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $100.35 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $93.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 3.42 and a quick ratio of 3.36.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.78) by $1.33. Moderna had a negative net margin of 68.84% and a negative return on equity of 10.23%. The firm had revenue of $2.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.53 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.61 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 44.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Moderna, Inc. will post -7.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on MRNA. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their price target on shares of Moderna from $82.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. William Blair reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Moderna in a research report on Monday, April 1st. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Moderna in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $125.00 price target on shares of Moderna in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Oppenheimer upgraded shares of Moderna from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $142.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $126.49.

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.