Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Acquires New Position in Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new stake in Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 50,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,012,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC increased its holdings in Moderna by 36.4% in the third quarter. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC now owns 355,177 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,686,000 after buying an additional 94,810 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Moderna by 6,528.9% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 387,656 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,552,000 after buying an additional 381,808 shares during the last quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Moderna by 81.7% in the third quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 259,838 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,839,000 after buying an additional 116,840 shares during the last quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund bought a new stake in Moderna in the third quarter valued at about $1,185,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in Moderna by 19.8% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,126,028 shares of the company’s stock valued at $322,887,000 after buying an additional 517,683 shares during the last quarter. 75.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on MRNA. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price objective on Moderna from $82.00 to $91.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 23rd. William Blair restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Moderna in a research note on Monday, April 1st. HSBC restated a “reduce” rating and issued a $86.00 target price (up from $75.00) on shares of Moderna in a research note on Monday, February 26th. Oppenheimer upgraded Moderna from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $142.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 2nd. Finally, Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Moderna in a research note on Thursday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $126.49.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, President Stephen Hoge sold 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.90, for a total transaction of $1,558,500.00. Following the sale, the president now owns 1,516,063 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $157,518,945.70. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Moderna news, insider Shannon Thyme Klinger sold 670 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $94.57, for a total value of $63,361.90. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 8,557 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $809,235.49. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, President Stephen Hoge sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.90, for a total value of $1,558,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now directly owns 1,516,063 shares in the company, valued at approximately $157,518,945.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 94,954 shares of company stock valued at $9,966,476 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 15.70% of the company’s stock.

Moderna Price Performance

NASDAQ:MRNA traded down $1.87 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $105.14. 2,416,804 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,508,958. Moderna, Inc. has a one year low of $62.55 and a one year high of $163.24. The company has a market capitalization of $40.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -8.47 and a beta of 1.62. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $99.86 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $93.57. The company has a current ratio of 3.42, a quick ratio of 3.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The company reported $0.55 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.78) by $1.33. Moderna had a negative return on equity of 10.23% and a negative net margin of 68.84%. The firm had revenue of $2.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.53 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.61 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 44.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Moderna, Inc. will post -7.48 EPS for the current year.

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.