Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) Given New $205.00 Price Target at Morgan Stanley

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA – Get Rating) had its price target cut by Morgan Stanley from $209.00 to $205.00 in a research note released on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the stock. Chardan Capital upped their target price on shares of Moderna from $191.00 to $208.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Wednesday, January 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Moderna from $165.00 to $122.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 24th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Moderna from a hold rating to a buy rating and boosted their price target for the company from $170.00 to $275.00 in a research report on Monday, December 19th. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Moderna from $160.00 to $182.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 15th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of Moderna from $290.00 to $296.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, October 13th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Moderna presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $191.62.

Moderna Price Performance

Moderna stock opened at $196.76 on Tuesday. Moderna has a 52-week low of $115.03 and a 52-week high of $217.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $75.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.12 and a beta of 1.71. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $185.97 and a 200-day simple moving average of $161.27. The company has a quick ratio of 1.80, a current ratio of 2.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 3rd. The company reported $2.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.04 by ($0.51). Moderna had a return on equity of 70.03% and a net margin of 55.00%. The business had revenue of $3.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.33 billion. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Moderna will post 21.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moderna

In other Moderna news, CEO Stephane Bancel sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $205.31, for a total value of $8,212,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 5,411,946 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,111,126,633.26. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Moderna news, insider Juan Andres sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $201.70, for a total transaction of $403,400.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 12,803 shares in the company, valued at $2,582,365.10. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Stephane Bancel sold 40,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $205.31, for a total transaction of $8,212,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 5,411,946 shares in the company, valued at $1,111,126,633.26. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 445,899 shares of company stock valued at $80,212,386 over the last 90 days. 17.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Moderna

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in Moderna by 89.9% during the third quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,443,409 shares of the company’s stock worth $761,934,000 after purchasing an additional 3,051,035 shares during the period. Theleme Partners LLP increased its stake in Moderna by 0.3% during the second quarter. Theleme Partners LLP now owns 6,354,406 shares of the company’s stock worth $907,727,000 after purchasing an additional 17,466 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its stake in shares of Moderna by 108.2% during the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 3,818,180 shares of the company’s stock worth $657,720,000 after buying an additional 1,984,458 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of Moderna by 0.6% during the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,503,325 shares of the company’s stock worth $603,483,000 after buying an additional 20,416 shares during the period. Finally, Banque Pictet & Cie SA increased its stake in shares of Moderna by 0.9% during the second quarter. Banque Pictet & Cie SA now owns 3,026,346 shares of the company’s stock worth $432,314,000 after buying an additional 26,863 shares during the period. 63.11% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Moderna

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Moderna, Inc, a biotechnology company, discovers, develops, and commercializes messenger RNA therapeutics and vaccines for the treatment of infectious diseases, immuno-oncology, rare diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and auto-immune diseases in the United States, Europe, and internationally. Its respiratory vaccines include COVID-19, flu, respiratory syncytial virus, Endemic HCoV, and hMPV+PIV3 vaccines; latent vaccines comprise cytomegalovirus, epstein-barr virus, human immunodeficiency virus, herpes simplex virus, and varicella-zoster virus vaccines; and public health vaccines consists of Zika and Nipah vaccines.