Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) Earns “Hold” Rating from Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC restated their hold rating on shares of Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) in a report released on Friday morning, Benzinga reports.

A number of other research firms have also issued reports on MRNA. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of Moderna from $157.00 to $115.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Friday. HSBC upgraded Moderna from a reduce rating to a hold rating and set a $82.00 price target for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered shares of Moderna from an outperform rating to a sector perform rating and lowered their target price for the company from $125.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Monday, August 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Moderna from a neutral rating to an underweight rating and decreased their target price for the company from $88.00 to $70.00 in a research note on Friday. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Moderna from $168.00 to $155.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $108.53.

Moderna Stock Down 2.0 %

Shares of MRNA stock opened at $68.28 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $95.06 and its 200-day moving average is $111.89. The stock has a market cap of $26.17 billion, a PE ratio of -4.36 and a beta of 1.67. Moderna has a 1 year low of $62.55 and a 1 year high of $170.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 3.92 and a current ratio of 4.09.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported ($3.33) EPS 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $128.41 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($3.62) earnings per share. Moderna’s revenue was down 29.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Moderna will post -9.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO James M. Mock sold 689 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.24, for a total value of $81,467.36. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 7,269 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $859,486.56. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Moderna news, CFO James M. Mock sold 689 shares of Moderna stock in a transaction on Monday, July 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.24, for a total value of $81,467.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 7,269 shares in the company, valued at approximately $859,486.56. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO James M. Mock sold 1,321 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 8,600 shares in the company, valued at approximately $682,754. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 93,158 shares of company stock valued at $11,167,312. 15.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Moderna

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Moderna by 22.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 33,907,072 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,372,058,000 after acquiring an additional 6,248,623 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Moderna in the fourth quarter valued at about $347,565,000. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in shares of Moderna by 28.8% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,225,579 shares of the company’s stock worth $718,584,000 after buying an additional 1,614,460 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. increased its stake in shares of Moderna by 42.9% in the 1st quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 1,545,829 shares of the company’s stock valued at $164,724,000 after acquiring an additional 463,960 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Matrix Capital Management Company LP acquired a new stake in Moderna in the fourth quarter worth $45,150,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.33% of the company’s stock.

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.