Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms “Hold” Rating for Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA)

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA)‘s stock had its “hold” rating reiterated by investment analysts at Needham & Company LLC in a research note issued on Friday, Benzinga reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also weighed in on MRNA. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Moderna from $163.00 to $179.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Moderna from $143.00 to $151.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 7th. William Blair reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Moderna in a research note on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Moderna from $135.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, June 3rd. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group upped their price objective on shares of Moderna from $91.00 to $106.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Moderna presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $134.02.

Moderna Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ MRNA opened at $121.18 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $133.78 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $111.47. Moderna has a 12 month low of $62.55 and a 12 month high of $170.47. The company has a current ratio of 4.03, a quick ratio of 3.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $46.44 billion, a PE ratio of -7.73 and a beta of 1.54.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The company reported ($3.07) earnings per share (EPS) 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%. Moderna’s revenue was down 91.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.19 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Moderna will post -7.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Noubar Afeyan sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.68, for a total transaction of $1,525,200.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 2,086,931 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $212,199,144.08. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, Director Noubar Afeyan sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.68, for a total transaction of $1,525,200.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 2,086,931 shares in the company, valued at $212,199,144.08. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, President Stephen Hoge sold 255 shares of Moderna stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.96, for a total transaction of $30,844.80. Following the completion of the sale, the president now directly owns 1,486,508 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $179,808,007.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 396,255 shares of company stock valued at $54,210,631. 15.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of MRNA. Old Port Advisors grew its stake in shares of Moderna by 20.8% during the 1st quarter. Old Port Advisors now owns 13,478 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,436,000 after purchasing an additional 2,317 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Moderna by 49.9% during the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 712 shares of the company’s stock valued at $79,000 after buying an additional 237 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale increased its holdings in Moderna by 14.3% during the first quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 221,718 shares of the company’s stock valued at $24,697,000 after buying an additional 27,705 shares during the last quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky increased its holdings in Moderna by 13.7% during the first quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 272,081 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,993,000 after buying an additional 32,806 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Advisors LLC raised its position in Moderna by 198.1% in the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 12,669 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,350,000 after acquiring an additional 8,419 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.33% of the company’s stock.

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.