Moderna Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NASDAQ:MRNA)

Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) was the target of unusually large options trading on Thursday. Stock investors acquired 128,500 put options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 157% compared to the typical daily volume of 49,924 put options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on MRNA. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on shares of Moderna from $65.00 to $55.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $75.00 target price on shares of Moderna in a report on Thursday, September 19th. UBS Group reduced their price target on Moderna from $140.00 to $108.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. HSBC raised shares of Moderna from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $82.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 28th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Moderna from $125.00 to $111.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 8th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $90.22.

Insider Transactions at Moderna

In related news, CFO James M. Mock sold 715 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.12, for a total value of $42,985.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 9,505 shares in the company, valued at $571,440.60. This trade represents a 7.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 2,930 shares of company stock worth $217,170. Insiders own 15.70% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Moderna

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MRNA. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Moderna in the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. Cedar Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Moderna by 45.0% during the 1st quarter. Cedar Wealth Management LLC now owns 290 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 90 shares in the last quarter. Family Firm Inc. acquired a new stake in Moderna in the 2nd quarter valued at about $33,000. Bank & Trust Co purchased a new position in Moderna during the second quarter worth $36,000. Finally, Hanseatic Management Services Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Moderna in the second quarter valued at approximately $48,000. 75.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Moderna Stock Down 7.3 %

MRNA traded down $2.92 on Friday, hitting $36.85. 24,355,514 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,710,303. Moderna has a twelve month low of $35.80 and a twelve month high of $170.47. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $58.56 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $96.88. The company has a current ratio of 4.39, a quick ratio of 4.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. The company has a market cap of $14.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.33 and a beta of 1.69.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.03 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.89) by $1.92. The firm had revenue of $1.90 billion for 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%. The company’s revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($1.39) EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Moderna will post -9.43 earnings per share 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.