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

Argus cut shares of Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Wednesday, MarketBeat.com reports.

MRNA has been the subject of several other research reports. Oppenheimer lowered Moderna from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Bank of America reiterated an “underperform” rating and issued a $41.00 target price on shares of Moderna in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Moderna in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Berenberg Bank initiated coverage on Moderna in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $42.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Leerink Partners dropped their target price on Moderna from $60.00 to $48.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Moderna currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $79.50.

Moderna Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MRNA traded down $0.15 on Wednesday, hitting $38.21. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,943,320 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,995,686. The company has a market capitalization of $14.70 billion, a PE ratio of -6.57 and a beta of 1.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 4.39 and a quick ratio of 4.20. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $47.16 and a 200 day simple moving average of $81.43. Moderna has a 1 year low of $35.80 and a 1 year high of $170.47.

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

Insider Transactions at Moderna

In related news, insider Shannon Thyme Klinger sold 1,418 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.79, for a total value of $60,676.22. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 19,717 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $843,690.43. This represents a 6.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO James M. Mock sold 715 shares of the firm’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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 9,505 shares in the company, valued at $571,440.60. This trade represents a 7.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 3,379 shares of company stock worth $158,195 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 15.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Moderna

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MRNA. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Moderna during the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. Family Firm Inc. purchased a new stake in Moderna during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Moderna in the second quarter worth $48,000. Plato Investment Management Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Moderna by 230.4% during the second quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd now owns 413 shares of the company’s stock valued at $49,000 after buying an additional 288 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in shares of Moderna by 365.6% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 731 shares of the company’s stock valued at $49,000 after acquiring an additional 574 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.33% of the company’s stock.

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.