Traders Buy High Volume of Moderna Put Options (NASDAQ:MRNA)

Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Stock traders acquired 103,653 put options on the stock. This is an increase of 142% compared to the typical volume of 42,850 put options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. TD Cowen reduced their target price on shares of Moderna from $70.00 to $60.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on shares of Moderna from $178.00 to $139.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their target price on shares of Moderna from $65.00 to $55.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. William Blair reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Moderna in a research report on Thursday, June 27th. Finally, Oppenheimer cut shares of Moderna from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Two 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Moderna has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $97.18.

Moderna Stock Down 4.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ MRNA opened at $54.82 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 4.09, a quick ratio of 3.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The company has a market cap of $21.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.50 and a beta of 1.66. Moderna has a 12 month low of $54.82 and a 12 month high of $170.47. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $71.36 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $104.92.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported ($3.33) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($3.47) by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $241.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $128.41 million. Moderna had a negative return on equity of 21.35% and a negative net margin of 116.18%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 29.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($3.62) earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Moderna will post -9.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Moderna

In other Moderna news, Director Noubar Afeyan sold 15,000 shares of Moderna stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.96, for a total transaction of $1,799,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 2,224,015 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $266,792,839.40. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed 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 completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 9,505 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $571,440.60. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Noubar Afeyan sold 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.96, for a total transaction of $1,799,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 2,224,015 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $266,792,839.40. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 33,184 shares of company stock valued at $3,804,931. 15.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Moderna by 15.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 39,036,872 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,159,769,000 after buying an additional 5,129,800 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. increased its stake in shares of Moderna by 42.9% in the first quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 1,545,829 shares of the company’s stock valued at $164,724,000 after buying an additional 463,960 shares during the period. Nikko Asset Management Americas Inc. increased its stake in shares of Moderna by 156.9% in the first quarter. Nikko Asset Management Americas Inc. now owns 741,783 shares of the company’s stock valued at $79,044,000 after buying an additional 453,004 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Moderna by 1,212.9% in the first quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 330,805 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,251,000 after buying an additional 305,609 shares during the period. Finally, Matrix Capital Management Company LP increased its stake in shares of Moderna by 60.8% in the first quarter. Matrix Capital Management Company LP now owns 730,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $77,789,000 after buying an additional 276,000 shares during the period. 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.