Legal & General Group Plc Acquires New Stake in Moderna, Inc. $MRNA

Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 883,075 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $61,842,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of MRNA. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new position in Moderna in the 1st quarter worth about $899,000. Merck & Co. Inc. purchased a new stake in Moderna in the 2nd quarter valued at about $161,642,545. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in Moderna in the 2nd quarter valued at about $119,168,000. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Moderna by 1,387.6% in the 2nd quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. now owns 24,218 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,696,000 after acquiring an additional 22,590 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lingotto Investment Management LLP grew its stake in Moderna by 33.7% in the 4th quarter. Lingotto Investment Management LLP now owns 498,693 shares of the company’s stock worth $14,706,000 after acquiring an additional 125,598 shares in the last quarter. 75.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Moderna news, insider Shannon Thyme Klinger sold 3,471 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $173,550.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 67,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,373,400. This trade represents a 4.89% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, President Stephen Hoge sold 53,336 shares of Moderna stock in a transaction on Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.37, for a total value of $2,739,870.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the president owned 1,483,848 shares in the company, valued at $76,225,271.76. This represents a 3.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders own 10.80% of the company’s stock.

Key Moderna News

Here are the key news stories impacting Moderna this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Moderna and Merck reported that their personalized mRNA melanoma vaccine, intismeran, combined with Keytruda, met the goals of a Phase 3 study involving 1,137 patients. The treatment reduced the risk of melanoma recurrence and distant spread versus Keytruda alone, strengthening the case for Moderna’s oncology pipeline and the commercial potential of the partnership. Reuters cancer vaccine breakthrough article
• Positive Sentiment: The U.S. FDA approved Moderna’s updated 2026–2027 Spikevax and mNEXSPIKE COVID-19 vaccines, targeting the XFG subvariant. The approval preserves access to the seasonal COVID-19 vaccine market, though future demand remains an important uncertainty. Reuters FDA approval article
• Positive Sentiment: Argus upgraded Moderna from “Hold” to “Buy” and assigned a $180 price target, indicating additional potential upside based on the company’s oncology opportunity and recent clinical progress. Argus upgrade article
• Neutral Sentiment: Jim Cramer advised a viewer to hold Moderna after the stock’s sharp rally, reflecting continued optimism about the Phase 3 cancer-vaccine result but also caution following the run-up. Jim Cramer Moderna commentary
• Negative Sentiment: Moderna priced an upsized $2.6 billion offering of zero-coupon convertible senior notes due 2032, increased from the initially proposed $2.0 billion. Proceeds may fund oncology investments and debt repayment, but the larger financing raised concerns about future share dilution and explains much of the selling pressure. Moderna convertible notes offering
• Negative Sentiment: BioNTech’s decision to halt a mid-stage personalized mRNA colorectal-cancer vaccine trial after a review weakened sentiment across the mRNA oncology sector, raising broader questions about the difficulty of translating promising technology into successful cancer treatments. BioNTech colorectal cancer trial article

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on MRNA. Wolfe Research raised shares of Moderna from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Moderna in a report on Wednesday, August 19th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Moderna in a research note on Friday, June 12th. Loop Capital set a $135.00 price objective on Moderna in a report on Wednesday, August 19th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on Moderna from $41.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $80.53.

Moderna Trading Down 3.3%

NASDAQ MRNA opened at $137.99 on Friday. Moderna, Inc. has a one year low of $22.28 and a one year high of $176.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 2.18 and a current ratio of 2.29. The company has a market capitalization of $55.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -17.27 and a beta of 0.91. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $77.11 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $59.73.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 31st. The company reported ($1.97) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($2.03) by $0.06. Moderna had a negative net margin of 141.43% and a negative return on equity of 28.30%. The firm had revenue of $145.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $102.93 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($2.13) EPS. The company’s revenue was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Moderna, Inc. will post -6.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Moderna

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.