Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) Downgraded by Jefferies Financial Group to “Hold”

Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report released on Friday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Jefferies Financial Group currently has $65.00 price target on the stock, down from their prior price target of $120.00.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. HSBC upgraded shares of Moderna from a reduce rating to a hold rating and set a $82.00 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. Evercore ISI reiterated an in-line rating and set a $120.00 price objective on shares of Moderna in a research report on Thursday, June 27th. Royal Bank of Canada cut Moderna from an outperform rating to a sector perform rating and dropped their target price for the company from $125.00 to $90.00 in a report on Monday, August 5th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Moderna from a sell rating to a hold rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $85.00 to $80.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on shares of Moderna from $204.00 to $178.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $103.93.

Moderna Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of MRNA opened at $69.17 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 4.09, a quick ratio of 3.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. Moderna has a 12 month low of $62.55 and a 12 month high of $170.47. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $94.12 and its two-hundred day moving average is $111.72. The firm has a market cap of $26.51 billion, a P/E ratio of -4.41 and a beta of 1.67.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 analyst estimates of $128.41 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($3.62) EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 29.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Moderna will post -9.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Moderna by 15.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 39,036,872 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,159,769,000 after acquiring an additional 5,129,800 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Moderna by 28.8% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 7,225,579 shares of the company’s stock worth $718,584,000 after buying an additional 1,614,460 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its position in shares of Moderna by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 3,648,117 shares of the company’s stock worth $388,743,000 after buying an additional 18,728 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Moderna during the 4th quarter worth approximately $347,565,000. Finally, Mawer Investment Management Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Moderna by 6.7% during the 1st quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 1,916,570 shares of the company’s stock worth $204,230,000 after buying an additional 120,621 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.33% of the company’s stock.

About Moderna

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.