Investors Purchase Large Volume of Put Options on Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA)

Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) saw unusually large options trading on Friday. Investors bought 127,231 put options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 86% compared to the average daily volume of 68,321 put options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on MRNA shares. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $69.00 target price (down previously from $115.00) on shares of Moderna in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on Moderna from $65.00 to $55.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Oppenheimer lowered shares of Moderna from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Argus downgraded shares of Moderna from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on shares of Moderna from $178.00 to $139.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $79.50.

Moderna Stock Performance

Shares of Moderna stock opened at $40.13 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $15.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.90 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. Moderna has a twelve month low of $35.80 and a twelve month high of $170.47. The company’s fifty day moving average is $44.82 and its 200 day moving average is $76.04.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO James M. Mock sold 715 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 9,505 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $571,440.60. This represents a 7.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Shannon Thyme Klinger sold 1,418 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the sale, the insider now owns 19,717 shares in the company, valued at $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. In the last quarter, insiders sold 3,379 shares of company stock worth $158,195. 15.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Moderna in the second quarter worth approximately $26,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. bought a new stake in Moderna during the second quarter worth $48,000. Plato Investment Management Ltd raised its position in Moderna by 230.4% in the 2nd quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd now owns 413 shares of the company’s stock valued at $49,000 after buying an additional 288 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its stake in Moderna by 365.6% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 731 shares of the company’s stock valued at $49,000 after acquiring an additional 574 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in Moderna by 53.5% during the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 910 shares of the company’s stock worth $61,000 after acquiring an additional 317 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.