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

Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) saw unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Stock traders purchased 103,653 put options on the company. This is an increase of 142% compared to the average daily volume of 42,850 put options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on shares of Moderna in a report on Thursday. They set a “market perform” rating and a $55.00 target price for the company. Oppenheimer cut Moderna from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised Moderna from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $85.00 to $80.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Moderna from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Moderna in a report on Friday, September 13th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $97.18.

Moderna Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of Moderna stock opened at $54.10 on Friday. Moderna has a 1-year low of $53.55 and a 1-year high of $170.47. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $70.75 and its 200-day simple moving average is $104.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 4.09 and a quick ratio of 3.92. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.73 billion, a PE ratio of -3.45 and a beta of 1.66.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported ($3.33) earnings per share (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 analyst estimates of $128.41 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($3.62) earnings per share. Moderna’s revenue for the quarter was down 29.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Moderna will post -9.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Moderna news, CFO James M. Mock sold 715 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.12, for a total transaction of $42,985.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 9,505 shares in the company, valued at approximately $571,440.60. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, CFO James M. Mock sold 1,321 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 28th. The shares were 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. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO James M. Mock sold 715 shares of Moderna stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.12, for a total transaction of $42,985.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 9,505 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $571,440.60. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 33,184 shares of company stock valued at $3,804,931 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 15.70% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Moderna

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MRNA. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Moderna during the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. Family Firm Inc. bought a new position in shares of Moderna in the second quarter worth about $33,000. Cedar Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Moderna by 45.0% during the first quarter. Cedar Wealth Management LLC now owns 290 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 90 shares in the last quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in Moderna during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, Bank & Trust Co purchased a new position in Moderna in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $36,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.33% of the company’s stock.

Moderna Company Profile

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.