Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) Price Target Raised to $48.00 at Barclays

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) had its price objective lifted by research analysts at Barclays from $25.00 to $48.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “equal weight” rating on the stock. Barclays‘s price target indicates a potential downside of 1.88% from the company’s previous close.

Several other brokerages have also weighed in on MRNA. Morgan Stanley set a $30.00 price objective on Moderna in a report on Monday, February 16th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $37.00 target price on Moderna and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 3rd. Leerink Partners reaffirmed an “underperform” rating on shares of Moderna in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Moderna in a research note on Monday, February 16th. Finally, Evercore set a $35.00 price target on shares of Moderna in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and five have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Moderna has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $33.87.

Moderna Stock Down 2.2%

Shares of MRNA opened at $48.92 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 3.22 and a current ratio of 3.29. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $48.95 and a 200-day simple moving average of $35.73. Moderna has a 52 week low of $22.28 and a 52 week high of $59.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.32 billion, a P/E ratio of -6.73 and a beta of 1.29.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last released its earnings results on Friday, February 13th. The company reported ($2.11) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($2.79) by $0.68. Moderna had a negative return on equity of 30.15% and a negative net margin of 145.16%.The business had revenue of $678.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $611.14 million. During the same period last year, the business earned ($2.91) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 33.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Moderna will post -9.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, President Stephen Hoge sold 160,009 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.84, for a total value of $7,814,839.56. Following the sale, the president owned 1,457,427 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $71,180,734.68. The trade was a 9.89% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 10.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Corient Private Wealth LLC increased its position in shares of Moderna by 24.1% during the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 34,805 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,026,000 after purchasing an additional 6,751 shares in the last quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd boosted its position in Moderna by 21.9% in the fourth quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 2,153 shares of the company’s stock valued at $63,000 after buying an additional 387 shares in the last quarter. Sankala Group LLC acquired a new position in Moderna in the fourth quarter valued at about $240,000. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new stake in Moderna during the fourth quarter worth about $2,425,000. Finally, Hamilton Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Moderna during the fourth quarter worth about $3,098,000. 75.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Moderna Company 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.