Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) Price Target Raised to $48.00 at Barclays

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) had its target price lifted by analysts at Barclays from $25.00 to $48.00 in a research note issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “equal weight” rating on the stock. Barclays‘s target price would indicate a potential downside of 1.88% from the company’s current price.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on MRNA. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Moderna in a research report on Monday, February 16th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Moderna from $63.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $45.00 target price on shares of Moderna in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $37.00 price target on shares of Moderna and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 3rd. Finally, Evercore set a $35.00 price target on shares of Moderna in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and five have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Moderna has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $33.87.

Moderna Trading Down 2.2%

Shares of MRNA opened at $48.92 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 3.22 and a current ratio of 3.29. The company has a market cap of $19.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.73 and a beta of 1.29. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $48.95 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $35.73. Moderna has a 52-week low of $22.28 and a 52-week high of $59.55.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last announced its earnings results on Friday, February 13th. The company reported ($2.11) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($2.79) by $0.68. Moderna had a negative return on equity of 30.15% and a negative net margin of 145.16%.The company had revenue of $678.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $611.14 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($2.91) earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 33.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Moderna will post -9.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, President Stephen Hoge sold 160,009 shares of the 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 transaction, the president directly owned 1,457,427 shares in the company, valued at $71,180,734.68. This represents a 9.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 10.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Moderna

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Moderna by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 41,584,782 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,226,335,000 after purchasing an additional 399,487 shares during the period. Capital World Investors acquired a new position in Moderna in the fourth quarter valued at about $378,299,000. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Moderna by 15.7% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,216,163 shares of the company’s stock valued at $212,223,000 after buying an additional 1,115,131 shares during the period. Theleme Partners LLP boosted its holdings in Moderna by 2.5% during the third quarter. Theleme Partners LLP now owns 8,068,810 shares of the company’s stock worth $208,417,000 after buying an additional 200,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Moderna by 7.2% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,621,558 shares of the company’s stock worth $136,290,000 after buying an additional 309,126 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.33% of the company’s stock.

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.