Moderna Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NASDAQ:MRNA)

Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) saw unusually large options trading on Friday. Stock investors acquired 127,231 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of 86% compared to the average daily volume of 68,321 put options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Moderna news, insider Shannon Thyme Klinger sold 1,418 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.79, for a total value of $60,676.22. Following the sale, the insider now owns 19,717 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $843,690.43. The trade was a 6.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO James M. Mock sold 715 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.12, for a total value of $42,985.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 9,505 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $571,440.60. This represents a 7.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 3,379 shares of company stock worth $158,195. Company insiders own 15.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Moderna

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of MRNA. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Moderna by 12.1% in the third 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 in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in shares of Moderna by 21.0% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 5,224,685 shares of the company’s stock valued at $349,166,000 after purchasing an additional 906,114 shares during the period. Two Sigma Advisers LP purchased a new position in Moderna during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $23,825,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in Moderna by 10,687.1% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 319,514 shares of the company’s stock worth $21,353,000 after buying an additional 316,552 shares during the period. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its stake 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 institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on MRNA. Oppenheimer cut Moderna from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Argus lowered shares of Moderna from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. HSBC raised shares of Moderna from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $58.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on shares of Moderna from $65.00 to $55.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on Moderna from $178.00 to $139.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Moderna currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $79.50.

Moderna Trading Up 0.4 %

MRNA opened at $40.43 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $45.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $77.55. The company has a market cap of $15.56 billion, a P/E ratio of -6.95 and a beta of 1.59. Moderna has a one year low of $35.80 and a one year high of $170.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 4.20 and a current ratio of 4.39.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.03 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.89) by $1.92. The company had revenue of $1.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.25 billion. Moderna had a negative net margin of 43.77% and a negative return on equity of 17.68%. The firm’s revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($1.39) earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Moderna will post -9.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.