Wall Street Zen Upgrades Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) to “Hold”

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) was upgraded by Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report released on Saturday.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on MRNA. UBS Group cut Moderna from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $40.00 to $34.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 6th. Berenberg Bank set a $28.00 price target on Moderna in a research report on Monday, November 17th. Leerink Partners upped their price target on Moderna from $15.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Moderna from $26.00 to $25.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating on shares of Moderna in a research report on Monday, January 12th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and five have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $30.36.

Moderna Trading Up 6.3%

NASDAQ MRNA opened at $41.83 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $29.61 and a 200 day simple moving average of $28.20. The company has a market cap of $16.34 billion, a P/E ratio of -5.18 and a beta of 1.17. Moderna has a 1 year low of $22.28 and a 1 year high of $45.40.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported ($0.51) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($2.15) by $1.64. The firm had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $893.29 million. Moderna had a negative net margin of 139.61% and a negative return on equity of 29.81%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 45.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.03 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Moderna will post -9.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Moderna

In other news, Director Noubar Afeyan sold 23,853 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.48, for a total value of $703,186.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 3,924 shares in the company, valued at approximately $115,679.52. This represents a 85.87% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 10.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Moderna

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Moderna during the second quarter worth approximately $94,910,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Moderna by 3.2% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 41,708,705 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,150,743,000 after purchasing an additional 1,312,192 shares in the last quarter. Legal Advantage Investments Inc. bought a new position in Moderna in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,244,000. Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc. lifted its holdings in Moderna by 2.4% during the 2nd quarter. Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc. now owns 918,190 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,333,000 after buying an additional 21,765 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its position in Moderna by 600.7% in the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 92,999 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,566,000 after buying an additional 79,726 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.33% of the company’s stock.

Moderna Company Profile

Moderna, Inc is a biotechnology company headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, specializing in messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines. The company’s platform leverages synthetic mRNA to instruct cells to produce proteins that can prevent or treat diseases. Since its founding in 2010, Moderna has advanced from early-stage research into a broad pipeline of vaccine and therapeutic candidates designed to address infectious diseases, rare genetic disorders and chronic illnesses.

Moderna’s flagship product is its mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine, which was the first of its kind to receive emergency use authorization and later full approval in multiple jurisdictions.