Moderna Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NASDAQ:MRNA)

Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) was the target of unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Stock traders acquired 103,958 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 42% compared to the typical daily volume of 73,225 call options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on MRNA shares. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Moderna in a research note on Friday, November 15th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $40.00 target price for the company. Oppenheimer downgraded Moderna from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on shares of Moderna from $65.00 to $55.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Bank of America restated an “underperform” rating and set a $41.00 price objective on shares of Moderna in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, HSBC upgraded shares of Moderna from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $58.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $79.50.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Moderna news, insider Shannon Thyme Klinger sold 1,418 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.79, for a total transaction of $60,676.22. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 19,717 shares in the company, valued at $843,690.43. This represents a 6.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders have sold a total of 2,664 shares of company stock worth $115,210 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 15.70% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Moderna

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Moderna by 12.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,847,212 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,125,899,000 after acquiring an additional 1,823,276 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Moderna by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,069,580 shares of the company’s stock valued at $470,670,000 after purchasing an additional 178,115 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Moderna by 21.0% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 5,224,685 shares of the company’s stock worth $349,166,000 after purchasing an additional 906,114 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its stake in Moderna by 0.5% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,890,812 shares of the company’s stock worth $260,023,000 after purchasing an additional 19,819 shares in the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its holdings in Moderna by 6.2% in the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 3,073,934 shares of the company’s stock valued at $205,431,000 after buying an additional 178,939 shares during the last quarter. 75.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Moderna Stock Performance

Shares of MRNA stock opened at $47.53 on Wednesday. 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 fifty day moving average price is $43.38 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $71.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.29 billion, a P/E ratio of -8.17 and a beta of 1.60. Moderna has a 12 month low of $35.80 and a 12 month high of $170.47.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.03 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 business had revenue of $1.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.25 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($1.39) earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Moderna will post -9.3 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.