Wall Street Zen Upgrades Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) to “Hold”

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) was upgraded by research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Saturday.

Several other research firms also recently commented on MRNA. Bank of America cut their price objective on Moderna from $24.00 to $21.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 10th. Berenberg Bank set a $28.00 price target on shares of Moderna in a research note on Monday, November 17th. UBS Group lowered shares of Moderna from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $40.00 to $34.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 6th. Leerink Partners upped their target price on shares of Moderna from $15.00 to $18.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 21st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upgraded Moderna from a “market perform” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and five have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $30.36.

Moderna Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MRNA opened at $41.83 on Friday. Moderna has a 52-week low of $22.28 and a 52-week high of $45.40. The company has a market cap of $16.34 billion, a P/E ratio of -5.18 and a beta of 1.17. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $29.61 and its 200 day simple moving average is $28.22.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported ($0.51) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($2.15) by $1.64. The firm 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 business’s quarterly revenue was down 45.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.03 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Moderna will post -9.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Noubar Afeyan sold 23,853 shares of Moderna stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.48, for a total transaction of $703,186.44. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 3,924 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $115,679.52. The trade was a 85.87% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 10.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Moderna

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Tema Etfs LLC acquired a new stake in Moderna during the fourth quarter worth approximately $181,000. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Moderna by 30.3% during the fourth quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 21,169 shares of the company’s stock worth $624,000 after purchasing an additional 4,923 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in shares of Moderna by 47.0% during the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 22,768 shares of the company’s stock worth $703,000 after purchasing an additional 7,280 shares during the period. LVM Capital Management Ltd. MI acquired a new stake in Moderna during the 4th quarter worth approximately $421,000. Finally, CVA Family Office LLC boosted its stake in Moderna by 1,229.7% in the 4th quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 1,476 shares of the company’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 1,365 shares during the period. 75.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Moderna Company Profile

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.