Leerink Partners Has Lowered Expectations for Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) Stock Price

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) had its price objective decreased by Leerink Partners from $31.00 to $27.00 in a research note released on Thursday. Leerink Partners currently has an underweight rating on the stock.

Several other research analysts have also recently commented on the stock. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Moderna from $108.00 to $96.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Moderna in a research report on Friday, November 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Moderna from $59.00 to $45.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Moderna from $125.00 to $111.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Berenberg Bank increased their price objective on shares of Moderna from $33.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $75.58.

Moderna Stock Performance

NASDAQ MRNA opened at $34.06 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 4.39 and a quick ratio of 4.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.85 and a beta of 1.60. The company’s fifty day moving average is $40.85 and its two-hundred day moving average is $66.40. Moderna has a 52-week low of $31.94 and a 52-week high of $170.47.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.89) by $1.92. The company had revenue of $1.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.25 billion. Moderna had a negative net margin of 43.77% and a negative return on equity of 17.68%. The company’s revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($1.39) earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Moderna will post -9.3 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Moderna

In related news, insider Shannon Thyme Klinger sold 1,418 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.79, for a total value of $60,676.22. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 19,717 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $843,690.43. This represents a 6.71 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders have sold 2,664 shares of company stock valued at $115,210 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 15.20% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Moderna

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in Moderna by 78.7% in the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 109,733 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,031,000 after purchasing an additional 48,316 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Moderna by 2.1% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,427,300 shares of the company’s stock worth $169,542,000 after purchasing an additional 29,566 shares in the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of Moderna in the second quarter valued at $1,672,000. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. lifted its stake in Moderna by 6.2% during the 2nd quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 4,887 shares of the company’s stock worth $580,000 after acquiring an additional 287 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC lifted its stake in Moderna by 26.2% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 30,504 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,622,000 after acquiring an additional 6,339 shares in the last quarter. 75.33% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Moderna Company Profile

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.