Piper Sandler Reaffirms Overweight Rating for Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA)

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA)‘s stock had its “overweight” rating reiterated by equities researchers at Piper Sandler in a note issued to investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $69.00 target price on the stock, down from their prior target price of $115.00. Piper Sandler’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 85.04% from the company’s current price.

A number of other research analysts have also commented on MRNA. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Moderna from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $75.00 price target on shares of Moderna in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Moderna from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $85.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Moderna from $140.00 to $108.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Moderna in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Moderna currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $84.00.

Moderna Stock Down 5.6 %

Moderna stock opened at $37.29 on Monday. Moderna has a 1-year low of $35.80 and a 1-year high of $170.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.59 and a beta of 1.69. The company has a current ratio of 4.39, a quick ratio of 4.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $57.82 and a 200 day simple moving average of $96.07.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.89) by $1.92. Moderna had a negative net margin of 43.77% and a negative return on equity of 17.68%. The business had revenue of $1.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.25 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($1.39) EPS. Moderna’s revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Moderna will post -9.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO James M. Mock sold 715 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.12, for a total transaction of $42,985.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 9,505 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $571,440.60. This represents a 7.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders sold 2,930 shares of company stock valued at $217,170 over the last three months. Insiders own 15.20% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Moderna

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MRNA. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Moderna during the second quarter valued at about $26,000. Family Firm Inc. bought a new position in shares of Moderna during the second quarter valued at about $33,000. Bank & Trust Co bought a new position in shares of Moderna during the second quarter valued at about $36,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. bought a new position in shares of Moderna during the second quarter valued at about $48,000. Finally, Plato Investment Management Ltd raised its stake in shares of Moderna by 230.4% during the second quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd now owns 413 shares of the company’s stock valued at $49,000 after acquiring an additional 288 shares during the last quarter. 75.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.