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

Shares of Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the twenty-one ratings firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $90.22.

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Leerink Partners reduced their target price on shares of Moderna from $60.00 to $48.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on shares of Moderna in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $55.00 price target on the stock. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Moderna from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Moderna from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $75.00 price target on shares of Moderna in a research report on Thursday, September 19th.

Moderna Stock Down 7.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:MRNA opened at $36.85 on Monday. Moderna has a 52 week low of $35.80 and a 52 week 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. The company’s fifty day moving average is $58.56 and its 200-day moving average is $96.78. The company has a market capitalization of $14.18 billion, a PE ratio of -6.33 and a beta of 1.69.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last issued its 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. Moderna had a negative net margin of 43.77% and a negative return on equity of 17.68%. The company had revenue of $1.90 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.25 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($1.39) EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Moderna will post -9.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Moderna

In other news, CFO James M. Mock sold 715 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.12, for a total transaction of $42,985.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 9,505 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $571,440.60. This represents a 7.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders have sold a total of 2,930 shares of company stock valued at $217,170 over the last 90 days. 15.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Moderna by 2.6% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,069,580 shares of the company’s stock worth $470,670,000 after buying an additional 178,115 shares during the period. Groupama Asset Managment boosted its position in Moderna by 29.1% during the third quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 21,838 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,459,000 after purchasing an additional 4,920 shares during the last quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its position in Moderna by 1.5% during the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 114,335 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,641,000 after purchasing an additional 1,635 shares during the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd raised its stake in Moderna by 30.9% in the third quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 101,159 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,760,000 after buying an additional 23,881 shares during the period. Finally, MML Investors Services LLC raised its stake in Moderna by 21.6% in the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 33,895 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,265,000 after buying an additional 6,018 shares during the period. 75.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.