Moderna’s (MRNA) “Market Perform” Rating Reaffirmed at William Blair

William Blair reissued their market perform rating on shares of Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) in a research report report published on Thursday morning, RTT News reports.

MRNA has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on Moderna from $163.00 to $179.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their target price on shares of Moderna from $91.00 to $106.00 and gave the stock a hold rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Evercore ISI reiterated an in-line rating and issued a $120.00 price target on shares of Moderna in a research note on Thursday. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a buy rating and issued a $125.00 target price on shares of Moderna in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target on Moderna from $143.00 to $151.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Moderna presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $134.02.

Moderna Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ MRNA opened at $121.18 on Thursday. Moderna has a 52 week low of $62.55 and a 52 week high of $170.47. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $133.78 and its 200 day moving average is $111.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 3.91 and a current ratio of 4.03.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The company reported ($3.07) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($3.59) by $0.52. The company had revenue of $167.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $93.26 million. Moderna had a negative net margin of 115.82% and a negative return on equity of 20.10%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 91.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.19 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Moderna will post -7.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Noubar Afeyan sold 202,832 shares of Moderna stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.34, for a total transaction of $30,088,098.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 1,528,557 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $226,746,145.38. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, Director Noubar Afeyan sold 202,832 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $148.34, for a total transaction of $30,088,098.88. Following the sale, the director now owns 1,528,557 shares in the company, valued at approximately $226,746,145.38. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, President Stephen Hoge sold 15,000 shares of Moderna stock in a transaction on Monday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $138.16, for a total transaction of $2,072,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now owns 1,457,089 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $201,311,416.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 396,255 shares of company stock valued at $54,210,631. 15.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Moderna

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Moderna by 22.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 33,907,072 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,372,058,000 after purchasing an additional 6,248,623 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Moderna during the fourth quarter worth $347,565,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its stake in shares of Moderna by 77.3% in the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 3,876,147 shares of the company’s stock valued at $400,367,000 after buying an additional 1,690,341 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Moderna by 28.8% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,225,579 shares of the company’s stock valued at $718,584,000 after buying an additional 1,614,460 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. increased its position in shares of Moderna by 42.9% during the first quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 1,545,829 shares of the company’s stock worth $164,724,000 after acquiring an additional 463,960 shares in 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.