Royal Bank of Canada Reaffirms Sector Perform Rating for Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA)

Royal Bank of Canada reissued their sector perform rating on shares of Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $75.00 price target on the stock.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on MRNA. Barclays dropped their price objective on Moderna from $155.00 to $125.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a report on Monday, September 16th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Moderna from a moderate sell rating to a hold rating in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on Moderna from $178.00 to $139.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Monday, September 16th. Oppenheimer lowered shares of Moderna from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Finally, Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on shares of Moderna from $157.00 to $115.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 13th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Moderna has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $100.44.

Moderna Price Performance

Shares of MRNA opened at $65.69 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $25.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.19 and a beta of 1.68. Moderna has a fifty-two week low of $62.55 and a fifty-two week high of $170.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 4.09 and a quick ratio of 3.92. The business’s 50-day moving average is $90.07 and its 200-day moving average is $110.87.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Moderna news, President Stephen Hoge sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $121.12, for a total value of $1,816,800.00. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 1,442,089 shares in the company, valued at approximately $174,665,819.68. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CFO James M. Mock sold 689 shares of Moderna stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $118.24, for a total transaction of $81,467.36. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 7,269 shares in the company, valued at approximately $859,486.56. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, President Stephen Hoge sold 15,000 shares of Moderna stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $121.12, for a total transaction of $1,816,800.00. Following the sale, the president now owns 1,442,089 shares in the company, valued at $174,665,819.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 93,158 shares of company stock worth $11,167,312 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 15.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Moderna

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MRNA. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Moderna during the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. Cedar Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Moderna by 45.0% in the first 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. Westside Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in Moderna in the first quarter valued at about $32,000. Family Firm Inc. acquired a new position in Moderna in the second quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, Rise Advisors LLC boosted its position in Moderna by 953.3% in the first quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 316 shares of the company’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 286 shares in the last quarter. 75.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.