Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) Rating Lowered to “Hold” at Argus

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) was downgraded by equities researchers at Argus from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, MarketBeat.com reports.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein initiated coverage on shares of Moderna in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $55.00 price target on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Moderna from $59.00 to $45.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $75.00 price target on shares of Moderna in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Oppenheimer lowered Moderna from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Finally, TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of Moderna from $70.00 to $60.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 13th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $79.50.

Moderna Stock Up 3.1 %

Shares of MRNA opened at $39.56 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.80 and a beta of 1.58. Moderna has a 52 week low of $35.80 and a 52 week high of $170.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 4.20 and a current ratio of 4.39. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $46.81 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $81.14.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.03 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.89) by $1.92. Moderna had a negative return on equity of 17.68% and a negative net margin of 43.77%. The company had revenue of $1.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.25 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($1.39) EPS. Moderna’s revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Moderna will post -9.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moderna

In other news, insider Shannon Thyme Klinger sold 1,418 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.79, for a total transaction of $60,676.22. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 19,717 shares in the company, valued at $843,690.43. The trade was a 6.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO James M. Mock sold 715 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 9,505 shares in the company, valued at approximately $571,440.60. The trade was a 7.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 3,379 shares of company stock worth $158,195 over the last ninety days. 15.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MRNA. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in Moderna by 13.0% during the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 7,352 shares of the company’s stock worth $873,000 after purchasing an additional 843 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its holdings in shares of Moderna by 19.7% during the 2nd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 11,178 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,327,000 after buying an additional 1,842 shares during the period. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. grew its stake in Moderna by 273.2% in the 2nd quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. now owns 27,408 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,255,000 after buying an additional 20,064 shares during the last quarter. Premier Path Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in Moderna in the 2nd quarter valued at about $283,000. Finally, Everhart Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Moderna during the second quarter worth approximately $274,000. 75.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.