Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Shares of Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the nineteen analysts that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $100.44.

MRNA has been the subject of several research analyst reports. HSBC raised Moderna from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $82.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on Moderna from $157.00 to $115.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 13th. Barclays decreased their price objective on Moderna from $155.00 to $125.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, September 16th. William Blair reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Moderna in a report on Thursday, June 27th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $75.00 target price on shares of Moderna in a report on Thursday, September 19th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO James M. Mock sold 1,321 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.39, for a total value of $104,874.19. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 8,600 shares in the company, valued at approximately $682,754. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other Moderna news, President Stephen Hoge sold 15,000 shares of Moderna stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $121.12, for a total value of $1,816,800.00. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 1,442,089 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $174,665,819.68. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO James M. Mock sold 1,321 shares of Moderna stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.39, for a total value of $104,874.19. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,600 shares in the company, valued at $682,754. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 78,158 shares of company stock worth $9,259,012 in the last quarter. 15.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Moderna

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Moderna by 15.1% during 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. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in Moderna by 28.8% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,225,579 shares of the company’s stock worth $718,584,000 after purchasing an additional 1,614,460 shares during the period. Capital World Investors grew its stake in Moderna by 0.5% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 3,648,117 shares of the company’s stock worth $388,743,000 after purchasing an additional 18,728 shares during the period. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. boosted its holdings in Moderna by 6.7% in the first quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 1,916,570 shares of the company’s stock worth $204,230,000 after acquiring an additional 120,621 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bellevue Group AG boosted its holdings in Moderna by 27.6% in the fourth quarter. Bellevue Group AG now owns 1,908,420 shares of the company’s stock worth $189,792,000 after acquiring an additional 413,095 shares in the last quarter. 75.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Moderna Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MRNA opened at $65.75 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 stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $84.24 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $109.46. Moderna has a 1-year low of $62.55 and a 1-year high of $170.47. The stock has a market cap of $25.20 billion, a PE ratio of -4.20 and a beta of 1.67.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported ($3.33) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($3.47) by $0.14. Moderna had a negative return on equity of 21.35% and a negative net margin of 116.18%. The business had revenue of $241.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $128.41 million. During the same period last year, the business earned ($3.62) EPS. The business’s revenue was down 29.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Moderna will post -9.86 EPS 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.