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

Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) was the target of some unusual options trading on Friday. Investors purchased 82,926 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 48% compared to the typical volume of 56,194 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MRNA has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Moderna from $125.00 to $111.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on shares of Moderna from $65.00 to $55.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Moderna in a report on Friday, November 15th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $40.00 price objective for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective 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. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on shares of Moderna in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $55.00 target price on the stock. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $84.00.

Insider Activity

In related 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 value of $42,985.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 9,505 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $571,440.60. The trade was a 7.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders sold a total of 2,930 shares of company stock worth $217,170 in the last three months. 15.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Moderna during the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. Family Firm Inc. bought a new stake in Moderna in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Bank & Trust Co purchased a new stake in Moderna in the second quarter worth approximately $36,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Moderna during the second quarter worth approximately $48,000. Finally, Plato Investment Management Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Moderna by 230.4% in the 2nd quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd now owns 413 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,000 after acquiring an additional 288 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.33% of the company’s stock.

Moderna Stock Up 7.5 %

MRNA opened at $41.11 on Friday. Moderna has a fifty-two week low of $35.80 and a fifty-two week high of $170.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 4.39 and a quick ratio of 4.20. The company’s 50-day moving average is $55.50 and its 200 day moving average is $94.65. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.82 billion, a P/E ratio of -7.05 and a beta of 1.69.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.89) by $1.92. Moderna had a negative return on equity of 17.68% and a negative net margin of 43.77%. The firm 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 company earned ($1.39) EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Moderna will post -9.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Moderna

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.