Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) Trading Up 10.2% – What’s Next?

Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA)’s stock price shot up 10.2% on Thursday . The company traded as high as $54.56 and last traded at $54.8660. 12,292,968 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 10% from the average session volume of 13,622,050 shares. The stock had previously closed at $49.81.

Key Headlines Impacting Moderna

Here are the key news stories impacting Moderna this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Five‑year follow‑up Phase IIb results for Moderna and Merck’s personalized melanoma vaccine show a large reduction in recurrence/death (~49% risk reduction when combined with Keytruda), supporting the thesis that oncology programs could materially re‑rate Moderna’s growth story. MRNA & MRK’s Personalized Cancer Therapy Delivers Strong 5-Year Data
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple outlets report the melanoma vaccine showed durable protection at 5 years and that early clinical readouts have driven a rally and momentum toward a 52‑week high — a near‑term positive for sentiment and potential re‑rating if further trials succeed. mRNA cancer vaccine shows protection at 5-year follow-up
• Positive Sentiment: Press coverage highlights promising melanoma vaccine data and positions oncology and personalized medicine as the company’s path to rebuild top‑line growth after the COVID vaccine era. Moderna’s Skin Cancer Vaccine Is Looking Seriously Promising
• Neutral Sentiment: Market context: broader market moves and sector rotation helped magnify Moderna’s stock swings this week; coverage of the rally and technical momentum is mixed with reminders that biotech remains volatile. MarketBeat Week in Review – 01/19 – 01/23
• Negative Sentiment: CEO comments that Moderna will curb investment in new late‑stage infectious‑disease vaccine trials because of growing U.S. anti‑vaccine backlash introduce strategic and political risk — potentially capping near‑term vaccine revenue upside and raising uncertainty about the company’s vaccine pipeline plans. Moderna curbing investments in vaccine trials due to US backlash, CEO tells Bloomberg TV
• Negative Sentiment: Coverage emphasizes the “pullback” from new vaccine trials and rising anti‑vax sentiment as a drag on the company’s ability to monetize respiratory vaccines going forward — a catalyst that can offset optimism from oncology data and prompt profit‑taking. Anti-vaccine sentiment pushes Moderna away from new late-stage infectious disease trials

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on MRNA. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Moderna in a report on Monday, December 1st. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Moderna from $31.00 to $25.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Berenberg Bank set a $28.00 price target on Moderna in a report on Monday, November 17th. UBS Group downgraded Moderna from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $40.00 to $34.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 6th. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Moderna in a research report on Monday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and five have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $30.36.

Moderna Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $19.06 billion, a PE ratio of -6.04 and a beta of 1.17. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $31.77 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $28.81.

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

Insider Activity

In other Moderna news, Director Noubar Afeyan sold 23,853 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.48, for a total transaction of $703,186.44. Following the sale, the director directly owned 3,924 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $115,679.52. This trade represents a 85.87% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 10.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Moderna

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Moderna in the second quarter valued at approximately $94,910,000. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its stake in Moderna by 364.5% during the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 2,869,271 shares of the company’s stock worth $79,163,000 after purchasing an additional 2,251,497 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Moderna by 19.1% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,877,280 shares of the company’s stock valued at $244,458,000 after purchasing an additional 1,420,690 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Moderna by 3.2% in the 2nd 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Moderna by 20.7% during the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,101,032 shares of the company’s stock valued at $195,917,000 after buying an additional 1,217,408 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.33% of the company’s stock.

About Moderna

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.