Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) Sees Strong Trading Volume – Here’s What Happened

Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) saw unusually-high trading volume on Monday . Approximately 3,565,164 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 24% from the previous session’s volume of 4,701,348 shares.The stock last traded at $37.86 and had previously closed at $36.85.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. UBS Group reduced their target price on Moderna from $140.00 to $108.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Moderna from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $85.00 to $80.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on shares of Moderna from $65.00 to $55.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. HSBC raised shares of Moderna from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $58.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Moderna from $125.00 to $111.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $86.33.

Moderna Stock Up 6.4 %

The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $58.56 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $96.68. The firm has a market cap of $15.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.70 and a beta of 1.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 4.20 and a current ratio of 4.39.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.89) by $1.92. The business had revenue of $1.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.25 billion. Moderna had a negative return on equity of 17.68% and a negative net margin of 43.77%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($1.39) EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Moderna, Inc. 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 business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.12, for a total value of $42,985.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 9,505 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $571,440.60. The trade was a 7.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In the last three months, insiders have sold 2,930 shares of company stock valued at $217,170. Insiders own 15.70% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Moderna

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Moderna in the 2nd quarter worth $26,000. Family Firm Inc. acquired a new stake in Moderna in the second quarter valued at about $33,000. Bank & Trust Co purchased a new stake in Moderna in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Moderna during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $48,000. Finally, Plato Investment Management Ltd raised its stake in shares of Moderna by 230.4% during the 2nd quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd now owns 413 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,000 after buying an additional 288 shares in the last quarter. 75.33% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.