Moderna Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NASDAQ:MRNA)

Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) was the target of unusually large options trading on Friday. Stock investors acquired 82,926 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 48% compared to the average volume of 56,194 call options.

Insider Transactions at Moderna

In other news, CFO James M. Mock sold 1,321 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.39, for a total transaction of $104,874.19. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 8,600 shares in the company, valued at $682,754. This represents a 13.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 2,930 shares of company stock valued at $217,170. Corporate insiders own 15.70% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Moderna

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp increased its stake in Moderna by 12.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,847,212 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,125,899,000 after buying an additional 1,823,276 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Moderna by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,069,580 shares of the company’s stock valued at $470,670,000 after buying an additional 178,115 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in shares of Moderna by 21.0% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 5,224,685 shares of the company’s stock worth $349,166,000 after buying an additional 906,114 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its position in shares of Moderna by 0.5% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,890,812 shares of the company’s stock worth $260,023,000 after buying an additional 19,819 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors increased its stake in shares of Moderna by 0.5% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 3,648,117 shares of the company’s stock worth $388,743,000 after buying an additional 18,728 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.33% of the company’s stock.

Moderna Stock Up 7.5 %

MRNA stock opened at $41.11 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.82 billion, a P/E ratio of -7.06 and a beta of 1.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 4.20 and a current ratio of 4.39. Moderna has a one year low of $35.80 and a one year high of $170.47. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $54.96 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $94.09.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.89) by $1.92. The firm had revenue of $1.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.25 billion. Moderna had a negative net margin of 43.77% and a negative return on equity of 17.68%. Moderna’s revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned ($1.39) earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Moderna will post -9.44 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Needham & Company LLC restated a “hold” rating on shares of Moderna in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Hsbc Global Res raised Moderna from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Moderna from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $85.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $69.00 target price (down from $115.00) on shares of Moderna in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, Oppenheimer downgraded shares of Moderna from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $84.00.

About Moderna

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.