Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) President Sells $7,814,839.56 in Stock

Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) President Stephen Hoge sold 160,009 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.84, for a total value of $7,814,839.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the president directly owned 1,457,427 shares in the company, valued at approximately $71,180,734.68. The trade was a 9.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

Moderna Stock Up 1.7%

MRNA traded up $0.85 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $51.37. The company had a trading volume of 7,937,882 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,882,565. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 3.29 and a quick ratio of 3.22. The business has a 50-day moving average of $39.84 and a 200-day moving average of $30.83. Moderna, Inc. has a 1-year low of $22.28 and a 1-year high of $55.20. The company has a market cap of $20.29 billion, a PE ratio of -7.07 and a beta of 1.32.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last issued its earnings results on Friday, February 13th. The company reported ($2.11) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($2.79) by $0.68. The firm had revenue of $678.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $611.14 million. Moderna had a negative return on equity of 30.15% and a negative net margin of 145.16%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 33.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned ($2.91) earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Moderna, Inc. will post -9.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Capital World Investors acquired a new position in shares of Moderna in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $378,299,000. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Moderna during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $94,910,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. acquired a new position in Moderna in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $95,209,000. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its stake in shares of Moderna by 364.5% during the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 2,869,271 shares of the company’s stock valued at $79,163,000 after acquiring an additional 2,251,497 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Moderna by 19.1% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,877,280 shares of the company’s stock worth $244,458,000 after purchasing an additional 1,420,690 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley set a $30.00 price objective on shares of Moderna in a research note on Monday, February 16th. Wolfe Research reissued an “underperform” rating and set a $17.00 target price on shares of Moderna in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Moderna from $63.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price target on Moderna from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised Moderna from a “market perform” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and five have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $31.87.

About Moderna

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.