Needham & Company LLC Reiterates “Hold” Rating for Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA)

Needham & Company LLC reissued their hold rating on shares of Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) in a research report released on Friday morning,Benzinga reports.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Moderna from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of Moderna from $155.00 to $125.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Oppenheimer lowered shares of Moderna from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. TD Cowen cut their price objective on shares of Moderna from $70.00 to $60.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein initiated coverage on shares of Moderna in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $55.00 price objective on the stock. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $93.18.

Moderna Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MRNA traded down $3.45 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $46.83. 13,561,538 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,882,079. Moderna has a 52 week low of $46.57 and a 52 week high of $170.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 3.92 and a current ratio of 4.09. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $61.85 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $99.22. The company has a market cap of $18.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.04 and a beta of 1.69.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.03 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($1.89) by $1.92. The company had revenue of $1.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.25 billion. Moderna had a negative net margin of 116.18% and a negative return on equity of 21.35%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted ($1.39) earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Moderna will post -9.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO James M. Mock sold 715 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 9,505 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $571,440.60. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Moderna news, CFO James M. Mock sold 715 shares of Moderna stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 9,505 shares in the company, valued at $571,440.60. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO James M. Mock sold 1,321 shares of Moderna stock in a transaction 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 in the company, valued at $682,754. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 3,184 shares of company stock valued at $238,531. 15.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Moderna

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Moderna by 15.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 39,036,872 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,159,769,000 after purchasing an additional 5,129,800 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in shares of Moderna by 0.5% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 3,648,117 shares of the company’s stock valued at $388,743,000 after buying an additional 18,728 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Moderna by 11.6% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,614,313 shares of the company’s stock valued at $107,885,000 after buying an additional 167,596 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Moderna by 2.1% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,427,300 shares of the company’s stock valued at $169,542,000 after buying an additional 29,566 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ARK Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Moderna by 10.4% in the third quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 1,163,946 shares of the company’s stock valued at $77,787,000 after buying an additional 109,852 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.33% of the company’s stock.

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.