Moderna’s (MRNA) “Hold” Rating Reaffirmed at Needham & Company LLC

Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed their hold rating on shares of Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) in a research report sent to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on MRNA. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised Moderna from a sell rating to a hold rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $85.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. William Blair reaffirmed a market perform rating on shares of Moderna in a research report on Thursday, June 27th. Oppenheimer cut Moderna from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a research report on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada cut Moderna from an outperform rating to a sector perform rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $125.00 to $90.00 in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on Moderna from $204.00 to $178.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus 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 stock’s fifty day moving average price is $95.06 and its 200 day moving average price is $111.68. 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 current ratio of 4.09 and a quick ratio of 3.92. The company has a market cap of $26.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.36 and a beta of 1.67.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported ($3.33) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 company had revenue of $241.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $128.41 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($3.62) EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 29.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Moderna will post -9.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Moderna news, CFO James M. Mock sold 1,321 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.39, for a total transaction of $104,874.19. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,600 shares in the company, valued at approximately $682,754. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Moderna news, President Stephen Hoge sold 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.16, for a total transaction of $2,072,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now directly owns 1,457,089 shares in the company, valued at approximately $201,311,416.24. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CFO James M. Mock sold 1,321 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $682,754. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 108,158 shares of company stock valued at $13,239,712. 15.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Moderna

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Quadrant Capital Group LLC grew its position in shares of Moderna by 7.5% in the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 2,672 shares of the company’s stock valued at $266,000 after purchasing an additional 187 shares in the last quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board purchased a new stake in shares of Moderna in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,358,000. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Moderna in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $664,000. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund grew its position in shares of Moderna by 22.1% in the first quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 51,791 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,519,000 after purchasing an additional 9,360 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in shares of Moderna in the first quarter valued at approximately $3,315,000. 75.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.