17,700 Shares in Moderna, Inc. $MRNA Acquired by Louisiana State Employees Retirement System

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new position in shares of Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm acquired 17,700 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $899,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of MRNA. AQR Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Moderna in the 1st quarter valued at $415,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Moderna by 732.7% during the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 11,575 shares of the company’s stock valued at $328,000 after acquiring an additional 10,185 shares during the period. United Services Automobile Association bought a new position in Moderna in the first quarter valued at about $230,000. Focus Partners Wealth boosted its holdings in Moderna by 58.7% in the first quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 23,547 shares of the company’s stock valued at $668,000 after acquiring an additional 8,706 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in Moderna by 5.2% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 48,859 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,348,000 after acquiring an additional 2,410 shares in the last quarter. 75.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Moderna in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Barclays upped their price objective on Moderna from $25.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 2nd. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Moderna from $69.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, June 26th. Morgan Stanley set a $33.00 target price on Moderna in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on Moderna from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and five have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $37.13.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Moderna news, Director Abbas Hussain sold 5,682 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $46.63, for a total transaction of $264,951.66. Following the transaction, the director owned 12,066 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $562,637.58. The trade was a 32.01% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, President Stephen Hoge sold 53,336 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.37, for a total value of $2,739,870.32. Following the sale, the president owned 1,483,848 shares in the company, valued at approximately $76,225,271.76. This represents a 3.47% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 125,088 shares of company stock worth $6,193,713. Insiders own 10.80% of the company’s stock.

Moderna Price Performance

Shares of MRNA stock opened at $79.76 on Monday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $53.50 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $48.22. The company has a current ratio of 2.41, a quick ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. Moderna, Inc. has a 1 year low of $22.28 and a 1 year high of $81.40. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.65 billion, a P/E ratio of -9.79 and a beta of 0.94.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 1st. The company reported ($3.40) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($3.02) by ($0.38). The business had revenue of $389.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $236.37 million. Moderna had a negative return on equity of 26.64% and a negative net margin of 143.55%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 260.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($2.52) earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Moderna, Inc. will post -6.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Moderna Profile

Moderna, Inc is a biotechnology company headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, specializing in messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and vaccines. The company’s platform leverages synthetic mRNA to instruct cells to produce proteins that can prevent or treat diseases. Since its founding in 2010, Moderna has advanced from early-stage research into a broad pipeline of vaccine and therapeutic candidates designed to address infectious diseases, rare genetic disorders and chronic illnesses.

Moderna’s flagship product is its mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine, which was the first of its kind to receive emergency use authorization and later full approval in multiple jurisdictions.