Capital World Investors Invests $378.30 Million in Moderna, Inc. $MRNA

Capital World Investors acquired a new position in Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 12,828,040 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $378,299,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in MRNA. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Moderna in the fourth quarter worth $79,707,000. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Moderna by 15.7% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,216,163 shares of the company’s stock worth $212,223,000 after purchasing an additional 1,115,131 shares in the last quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Moderna in the second quarter worth $23,192,000. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in shares of Moderna by 84.3% in the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,779,309 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,091,000 after purchasing an additional 813,974 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Theleme Partners LLP lifted its position in shares of Moderna by 8.6% in the second quarter. Theleme Partners LLP now owns 7,868,810 shares of the company’s stock worth $217,100,000 after purchasing an additional 626,420 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.33% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have issued reports on MRNA shares. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Moderna from $25.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 2nd. Evercore set a $35.00 price target on shares of Moderna in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Moderna in a research report on Monday, February 16th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Moderna in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $45.00 price target on shares of Moderna in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and five have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Moderna has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $36.60.

Insider Activity at Moderna

In other news, Director Abbas Hussain sold 5,682 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $46.63, for a total value of $264,951.66. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 12,066 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $562,637.58. This represents a 32.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed 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 stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.40, for a total transaction of $2,581,462.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the president directly owned 1,477,997 shares in the company, valued at $71,535,054.80. The trade was a 3.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 71,752 shares of company stock valued at $3,453,843 over the last three months. Company insiders own 10.80% of the company’s stock.

Moderna Stock Performance

NASDAQ MRNA opened at $47.60 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.41, a quick ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $49.71 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $43.47. Moderna, Inc. has a 1 year low of $22.28 and a 1 year high of $59.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.89 billion, a P/E ratio of -5.84 and a beta of 1.05.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 1st. The company reported ($3.40) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($3.02) by ($0.38). The company had revenue of $389.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $236.37 million. Moderna had a negative net margin of 143.55% and a negative return on equity of 26.64%. Moderna’s revenue for the quarter was up 260.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($2.52) earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Moderna, Inc. will post -6.51 EPS for the current year.

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.