Wolfe Research Initiates Coverage on Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA)

Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) in a report published on Friday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm issued an underperform rating and a $40.00 target price on the stock.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Moderna from $70.00 to $59.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 4th. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on shares of Moderna in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $55.00 price objective for the company. Leerink Partners cut their target price on shares of Moderna from $60.00 to $48.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Bank of America reduced their price target on shares of Moderna from $130.00 to $110.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 13th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $75.00 price objective on shares of Moderna in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $90.22.

Moderna Trading Down 7.3 %

Shares of Moderna stock traded down $2.92 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $36.85. The company had a trading volume of 24,355,514 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,710,303. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $58.56 and a 200 day moving average price of $96.88. Moderna has a fifty-two week low of $35.80 and a fifty-two week high of $170.47. The firm has a market cap of $14.18 billion, a PE ratio of -6.33 and a beta of 1.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 4.39 and a quick ratio of 4.20.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.03 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.89) by $1.92. The company had revenue of $1.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.25 billion. Moderna had a negative net margin of 43.77% and a negative return on equity of 17.68%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($1.39) EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Moderna will post -9.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO James M. Mock sold 1,321 shares of Moderna stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 8,600 shares in the company, valued at approximately $682,754. This trade represents a 13.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders sold a total of 2,930 shares of company stock worth $217,170 over the last quarter. Insiders own 15.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Moderna

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in MRNA. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Moderna in the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Family Firm Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Moderna in the second quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Cedar Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Moderna by 45.0% during the 1st quarter. Cedar Wealth Management LLC now owns 290 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 90 shares in the last quarter. Bank & Trust Co bought a new position in Moderna in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $36,000. Finally, Hanseatic Management Services Inc. purchased a new position in Moderna in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $48,000. 75.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.