Insider Selling: Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) President Sells 53,336 Shares of Stock

Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) President Stephen Hoge sold 53,336 shares of Moderna stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.40, for a total value of $2,581,462.40. Following the sale, the president owned 1,477,997 shares in the company, valued at $71,535,054.80. This trade represents a 3.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Stephen Hoge also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, February 23rd, Stephen Hoge sold 160,009 shares of Moderna stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.84, for a total value of $7,814,839.56.

Moderna Stock Performance

Shares of MRNA traded down $0.93 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $48.11. The stock had a trading volume of 5,000,616 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,772,490. The firm has a market cap of $19.09 billion, a P/E ratio of -5.90 and a beta of 1.05. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $51.56 and a 200-day moving average price of $40.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 2.41 and a quick ratio of 2.35. Moderna, Inc. has a 52 week low of $22.28 and a 52 week high of $59.55.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last issued its earnings results on Friday, May 1st. The company reported ($3.40) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($3.02) by ($0.38). The firm 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%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 260.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($2.52) earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Moderna, Inc. will post -6.79 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Moderna

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Empowered Funds LLC raised its stake in shares of Moderna by 143.5% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 33,436 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,699,000 after purchasing an additional 19,704 shares during the period. Quantinno Capital Management LP raised its stake in shares of Moderna by 74.7% during the 1st quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 168,077 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,538,000 after purchasing an additional 71,888 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Moderna during the 1st quarter valued at $577,000. Weiss Asset Management LP raised its stake in shares of Moderna by 190.9% during the 1st quarter. Weiss Asset Management LP now owns 93,720 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,761,000 after purchasing an additional 61,500 shares during the period. Finally, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund raised its stake in shares of Moderna by 59.0% during the 1st quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 21,850 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,110,000 after purchasing an additional 8,105 shares during the period. 75.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on MRNA shares. 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. Evercore set a $35.00 target price on Moderna in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Moderna in a research note on Monday, February 16th. Barclays boosted their target price on Moderna from $25.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $33.00 target price on Moderna in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and five have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Moderna currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $35.73.

About Moderna

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.