JPMorgan Chase & Co. Downgrades Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) to Underweight

JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) from a neutral rating to an underweight rating in a research note released on Friday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm currently has $70.00 target price on the stock, down from their prior target price of $88.00.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on MRNA. HSBC upgraded shares of Moderna from a reduce rating to a hold rating and set a $82.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. William Blair restated a market perform rating on shares of Moderna in a research report on Thursday, June 27th. Oppenheimer cut shares of Moderna from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a research report on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada cut shares of Moderna from an outperform rating to a sector perform rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $125.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on Moderna from $204.00 to $178.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Moderna presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $103.93.

Moderna Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of MRNA opened at $69.17 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $94.12 and its 200-day moving average price is $111.72. Moderna has a twelve month low of $62.55 and a twelve month high of $170.47. The stock has a market cap of $26.51 billion, a PE ratio of -4.41 and a beta of 1.67. The company has a quick ratio of 3.92, a current ratio of 4.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported ($3.33) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($3.47) by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $241.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $128.41 million. Moderna had a negative return on equity of 21.35% and a negative net margin of 116.18%. The company’s revenue was down 29.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($3.62) earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Moderna will post -9.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Noubar Afeyan sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.22, for a total value of $1,908,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 2,284,015 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $290,572,388.30. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CFO James M. Mock sold 1,321 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 8,600 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $682,754. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Noubar Afeyan sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.22, for a total value of $1,908,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 2,284,015 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $290,572,388.30. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 93,158 shares of company stock valued at $11,167,312. 15.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Moderna

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC bought a new position in Moderna in the second quarter worth $26,000. Ogorek Anthony Joseph NY ADV bought a new position in shares of Moderna during the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. Cedar Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Moderna by 45.0% during the first quarter. Cedar Wealth Management LLC now owns 290 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 90 shares in the last quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Moderna during the first quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Family Firm Inc. bought a new position in shares of Moderna during the second quarter valued at $33,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.33% of the company’s stock.

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.