Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) Shares Acquired by Covington Capital Management

Covington Capital Management lifted its stake in shares of Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA – Get Rating) by 13.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,231 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 146 shares during the quarter. Covington Capital Management’s holdings in Moderna were worth $146,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. lifted its stake in Moderna by 3.8% during the second quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 1,772 shares of the company’s stock worth $253,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Moderna by 1.3% during the third quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. now owns 5,465 shares of the company’s stock worth $646,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Slow Capital Inc. lifted its stake in Moderna by 0.5% during the third quarter. Slow Capital Inc. now owns 14,456 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,709,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares during the last quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in Moderna by 31.8% during the third quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 323 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 78 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Financial Services LLC lifted its stake in Moderna by 0.7% during the third quarter. Capital Financial Services LLC now owns 12,469 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,474,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 63.11% of the company’s stock.

Moderna Trading Up 2.3 %

Shares of MRNA stock opened at $151.28 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $169.12 and its 200 day moving average price is $160.41. Moderna, Inc. has a 1-year low of $115.03 and a 1-year high of $217.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $58.45 billion, a PE ratio of 7.58 and a beta of 1.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 2.73 and a quick ratio of 2.54.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 23rd. The company reported $3.61 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.66 by ($1.05). Moderna had a return on equity of 46.34% and a net margin of 43.41%. The business had revenue of $5.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.02 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $11.29 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 29.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Moderna, Inc. will post -2.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on MRNA. Cowen boosted their target price on Moderna from $130.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 25th. SVB Leerink cut Moderna from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $111.00 to $93.00 in a research note on Friday, February 24th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Moderna from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $170.00 to $275.00 in a research note on Monday, December 19th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Moderna from $160.00 to $182.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 15th. Finally, SVB Securities cut Moderna from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $111.00 to $93.00 in a research note on Friday, February 24th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $180.80.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Stephane Bancel sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 5,411,946 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,111,126,633.26. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Moderna news, CEO Stephane Bancel sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $205.31, for a total value of $8,212,400.00. Following the sale, 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 can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, President Stephen Hoge sold 245 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $163.90, for a total value of $40,155.50. Following the completion of the sale, the president now directly owns 1,627,693 shares in the company, valued at approximately $266,778,882.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 506,337 shares of company stock valued at $88,716,632 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 17.30% of the company’s stock.

Moderna Profile

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Moderna, Inc engages in the development of transformative medicines based on messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA). Its product pipeline includes the following modalities: prophylactic vaccines, cancer vaccines, intratumoral immuno-oncology, localized regenerative therapeutics, systemic secreted therapeutics, and systemic intracellular therapeutics.