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

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA)‘s stock had its “hold” rating restated by Needham & Company LLC in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday, Benzinga reports.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on MRNA. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Moderna from $93.00 to $90.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 1st. Canaccord Genuity Group initiated coverage on shares of Moderna in a research report on Wednesday, November 29th. They set a “hold” rating and a $82.00 target price on the stock. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their target price on shares of Moderna from $82.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $125.00 price target on shares of Moderna in a report on Friday, February 23rd. Finally, Oppenheimer raised shares of Moderna from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $142.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Moderna currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $129.82.

Moderna Stock Performance

Shares of MRNA stock opened at $110.59 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $42.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -8.91 and a beta of 1.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 3.36 and a current ratio of 3.42. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $98.79 and a 200 day simple moving average of $93.49. Moderna has a 52 week low of $62.55 and a 52 week high of $163.24.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.78) by $1.33. Moderna had a negative net margin of 68.84% and a negative return on equity of 10.23%. The business had revenue of $2.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.53 billion. Moderna’s revenue was down 44.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.61 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Moderna will post -7.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Noubar Afeyan sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.39, for a total transaction of $1,535,850.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 2,116,931 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $216,752,565.09. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, Director Noubar Afeyan sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.39, for a total transaction of $1,535,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 2,116,931 shares in the company, valued at $216,752,565.09. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO James M. Mock sold 647 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $94.57, for a total transaction of $61,186.79. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 4,300 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $406,651. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 50,021 shares of company stock valued at $5,211,442. Insiders own 15.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Moderna by 22.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 33,907,072 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,372,058,000 after purchasing an additional 6,248,623 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Moderna in the fourth quarter worth about $628,359,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its position in Moderna by 108.2% in the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 3,818,180 shares of the company’s stock worth $657,720,000 after acquiring an additional 1,984,458 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its position in Moderna by 77.3% in the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 3,876,147 shares of the company’s stock worth $400,367,000 after acquiring an additional 1,690,341 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in Moderna by 28.8% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,225,579 shares of the company’s stock worth $718,584,000 after acquiring an additional 1,614,460 shares during the period. 75.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.