Investors Purchase High Volume of Call Options on Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA)

Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Friday. Investors purchased 127,398 call options on the company. This is an increase of 40% compared to the average volume of 91,299 call options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Moderna

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MRNA. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Moderna during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $94,910,000. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its position in Moderna by 364.5% during the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 2,869,271 shares of the company’s stock valued at $79,163,000 after purchasing an additional 2,251,497 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Moderna by 19.1% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,877,280 shares of the company’s stock valued at $244,458,000 after purchasing an additional 1,420,690 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Moderna by 3.2% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 41,708,705 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,150,743,000 after acquiring an additional 1,312,192 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in Moderna by 20.7% during the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,101,032 shares of the company’s stock worth $195,917,000 after acquiring an additional 1,217,408 shares in the last quarter. 75.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Moderna Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ MRNA opened at $27.70 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $10.82 billion, a P/E ratio of -3.43 and a beta of 1.11. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $25.86 and a 200 day moving average of $26.97. Moderna has a 1 year low of $22.28 and a 1 year high of $48.92.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported ($0.51) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($2.15) by $1.64. The business had revenue of $1.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $893.29 million. Moderna had a negative return on equity of 29.81% and a negative net margin of 139.61%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 45.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.03 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Moderna will post -9.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their target price on Moderna from $28.00 to $25.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 21st. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Moderna in a report on Monday, December 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Moderna from $26.00 to $25.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. Berenberg Bank set a $28.00 price target on shares of Moderna in a research report on Monday, November 17th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Moderna in a research report on Monday, October 20th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and five have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $29.46.

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.