AlphaQuest LLC Buys 13,096 Shares of Moderna, Inc. $MRNA

AlphaQuest LLC raised its position in shares of Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) by 56.8% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 36,141 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 13,096 shares during the quarter. AlphaQuest LLC’s holdings in Moderna were worth $934,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in MRNA. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Moderna by 3.2% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 41,708,705 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,150,743,000 after purchasing an additional 1,312,192 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Moderna by 19.1% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,877,280 shares of the company’s stock valued at $244,458,000 after buying an additional 1,420,690 shares during the period. Theleme Partners LLP boosted its position in shares of Moderna by 8.6% during the second quarter. Theleme Partners LLP now owns 7,868,810 shares of the company’s stock valued at $217,100,000 after buying an additional 626,420 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Moderna by 20.7% during the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,101,032 shares of the company’s stock valued at $195,917,000 after buying an additional 1,217,408 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Moderna in the second quarter worth approximately $94,910,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.33% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “hold” rating on shares of Moderna in a report on Monday, January 5th. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Moderna from a “market perform” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 12th. UBS Group cut shares of Moderna from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $40.00 to $34.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 6th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Moderna from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, January 17th. Finally, TD Cowen restated a “hold” rating on shares of Moderna in a research note on Thursday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and five have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Moderna presently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $28.77.

Insider Activity at Moderna

In related news, Director Noubar Afeyan sold 23,853 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.48, for a total transaction of $703,186.44. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 3,924 shares in the company, valued at $115,679.52. This represents a 85.87% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders own 10.90% of the company’s stock.

Moderna Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MRNA opened at $42.55 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $34.33 and a 200-day simple moving average of $29.29. Moderna, Inc. has a one year low of $22.28 and a one year high of $55.20. The firm has a market cap of $16.63 billion, a P/E ratio of -5.27 and a beta of 1.17.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported ($0.51) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($2.15) by $1.64. The company had revenue of $1.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $893.29 million. Moderna had a negative net margin of 139.61% and a negative return on equity of 29.81%. Moderna’s revenue for the quarter was down 45.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.03 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Moderna, Inc. will post -9.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moderna Profile

Moderna, Inc is a biotechnology company headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, specializing in messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines. The company’s platform leverages synthetic mRNA to instruct cells to produce proteins that can prevent or treat diseases. Since its founding in 2010, Moderna has advanced from early-stage research into a broad pipeline of vaccine and therapeutic candidates designed to address infectious diseases, rare genetic disorders and chronic illnesses.

Moderna’s flagship product is its mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine, which was the first of its kind to receive emergency use authorization and later full approval in multiple jurisdictions.