Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) Shares Climb 4.6% – Still a Buy?

Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) rose 4.6% during trading on Tuesday. The company traded as high as $208.87 and last traded at $207.97. Approximately 17,511,972 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 38% from the average daily volume of 12,691,296 shares. The stock had previously closed at $198.85.

More Moderna News

Here are the key news stories impacting Moderna this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Moderna and Merck’s personalized melanoma vaccine, intismeran, achieved its Phase 3 primary endpoint. Combined with Keytruda, it reduced the risk of recurrence or death by 42% and distant metastasis or death by 38% versus Keytruda alone. The data were presented at ESMO 2026 and accepted for publication in The New England Journal of Medicine, providing important clinical validation. Moderna Phase 3 melanoma vaccine validation
• Positive Sentiment: An analyst price target for Moderna’s depositary receipt was increased 14.39% to ARS11,759.61, signaling continued long-term optimism from at least one market observer. Moderna depositary receipt price target increase
• Neutral Sentiment: CEO Stéphane Bancel says Moderna’s mRNA platform and personalized manufacturing capabilities provide a competitive advantage. Investors are watching whether the company can scale patient-specific vaccine production and convert the clinical success into commercial revenue. Moderna CEO discusses cancer vaccine strategy
• Negative Sentiment: William Blair downgraded Moderna from Outperform to Market Perform, citing valuation after a roughly 545% year-to-date rally. The firm’s call adds to concerns that much of the future cancer-vaccine opportunity is already reflected in the stock. William Blair downgrades Moderna on valuation
• Negative Sentiment: Although the trial succeeded, the 42% recurrence-risk reduction was below investor hopes based on earlier Phase 2 results of approximately 49%. The result, combined with Moderna’s continuing losses and shrinking COVID revenue, has caused investors to reassess a valuation largely dependent on an unapproved product with no sales. Merck and Moderna cancer vaccine trial analysis

Analyst Ratings Changes

MRNA has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Moderna from $120.00 to $137.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 15th. Singular Research raised Moderna to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 23rd. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Moderna from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 25th. Loop Capital set a $135.00 price target on shares of Moderna in a research report on Wednesday, August 19th. Finally, Brookline Capital Markets reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Moderna in a report on Wednesday, August 19th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $107.10.

Moderna Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 2.29, a quick ratio of 2.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $173.86 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $82.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $83.03 billion, a PE ratio of -26.03 and a beta of 1.09.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 31st. The company reported ($1.97) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($2.03) by $0.06. Moderna had a negative net margin of 141.43% and a negative return on equity of 28.30%. The company had revenue of $145.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $102.93 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($2.13) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Moderna, Inc. will post -6.11 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moderna

In other news, CFO Jamey Mock sold 34,836 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.49, for a total value of $4,685,093.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 59,375 shares in the company, valued at $7,985,343.75. The trade was a 36.98% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing 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 39,145 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $220.72, for a total transaction of $8,640,084.40. Following the completion of the sale, the president directly owned 1,636,565 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $361,222,626.80. The trade was a 2.34% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 197,251 shares of company stock valued at $33,875,904. Company insiders own 10.80% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Moderna

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MRNA. Merck & Co. Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Moderna in the 2nd quarter worth $161,642,545. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new stake in shares of Moderna in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $899,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Moderna in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $119,168,000. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Moderna by 1,387.6% during the 2nd quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. now owns 24,218 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,696,000 after buying an additional 22,590 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Moderna by 2,042.6% during the 3rd quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 72,591 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,722,000 after buying an additional 69,203 shares during the last quarter. 75.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Moderna Company Profile

Moderna, Inc is a biotechnology company that develops medicines and vaccines using messenger RNA (mRNA) technology. Its platform is designed to instruct cells to produce proteins that can stimulate immune responses or support the treatment of disease. The company’s research programs span infectious diseases, immuno-oncology, rare diseases, autoimmune conditions and other therapeutic areas.

Moderna’s commercial products include Spikevax, an mRNA vaccine for COVID-19, and mRESVIA, an mRNA vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in older adults.