Traders Purchase Large Volume of Moderna Call Options (NASDAQ:MRNA)

Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) was the target of unusually large options trading on Friday. Stock investors acquired 127,398 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 40% compared to the typical daily volume of 91,299 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Moderna

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its stake in shares of Moderna by 20.7% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 49,215 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,395,000 after buying an additional 8,432 shares in the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Moderna by 70.7% in the 1st quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 17,761 shares of the company’s stock worth $504,000 after purchasing an additional 7,356 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Moderna by 39.7% in the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 37,887 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,074,000 after acquiring an additional 10,761 shares during the period. Costello Asset Management INC purchased a new stake in Moderna in the 1st quarter worth about $30,000. Finally, ASR Vermogensbeheer N.V. bought a new stake in shares of Moderna during the 1st quarter worth approximately $614,000. 75.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently commented on MRNA shares. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Moderna from $31.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 10th. Leerink Partners raised their target price on Moderna from $15.00 to $18.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 21st. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of Moderna from $28.00 to $25.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 21st. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Moderna in a report on Friday, November 21st. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Moderna in a research note on Monday, October 20th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and five have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Moderna presently has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $29.46.

Moderna Stock Up 6.4%

Shares of Moderna stock traded up $1.63 on Friday, hitting $27.12. The stock had a trading volume of 7,693,926 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,847,976. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $25.80 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $26.97. Moderna has a one year low of $22.28 and a one year high of $48.92. The stock has a market cap of $10.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.36 and a beta of 1.11.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported ($0.51) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($2.15) by $1.64. Moderna had a negative return on equity of 29.81% and a negative net margin of 139.61%.The company had revenue of $1.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $893.29 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.03 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 45.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Moderna will post -9.61 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.