Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Buys 343,216 Shares of Moderna, Inc. $MRNA

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA - Free Report) by 19.2% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,132,167 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 343,216 shares during the quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP owned approximately 0.54% of Moderna worth $108,228,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. AQR Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Moderna in the 1st quarter worth about $415,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Moderna by 732.7% during the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 11,575 shares of the company's stock worth $328,000 after buying an additional 10,185 shares in the last quarter. United Services Automobile Association purchased a new position in shares of Moderna in the 1st quarter worth approximately $230,000. Focus Partners Wealth grew its holdings in shares of Moderna by 58.7% in the first quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 23,547 shares of the company's stock valued at $668,000 after acquiring an additional 8,706 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Moderna by 5.2% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 48,859 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,348,000 after acquiring an additional 2,410 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.33% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on MRNA. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Moderna from $69.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, June 26th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their target price on Moderna from $38.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. UBS Group restated a "neutral" rating on shares of Moderna in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a "hold" rating on shares of Moderna in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Moderna in a research note on Friday, June 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and five have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Reduce" and a consensus target price of $40.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Moderna

In other news, Director Abbas Hussain sold 5,682 shares of Moderna 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 completion of the transaction, the director owned 12,066 shares in the company, valued at $562,637.58. This trade represents a 32.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, President Stephen Hoge sold 53,336 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.37, for a total transaction of $2,739,870.32. Following the completion of the sale, the president directly owned 1,483,848 shares in the company, valued at approximately $76,225,271.76. This trade represents a 3.47% decrease in their position. 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 125,088 shares of company stock valued at $6,193,713 in the last three months. 10.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Moderna Stock Performance

Shares of MRNA opened at $55.81 on Wednesday. Moderna, Inc. has a 1 year low of $22.28 and a 1 year high of $85.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 2.41 and a quick ratio of 2.35. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $58.87 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $52.19. The firm has a market cap of $22.14 billion, a PE ratio of -6.85 and a beta of 0.94.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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). Moderna had a negative return on equity of 26.64% and a negative net margin of 143.55%.The firm had revenue of $389.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $236.37 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($2.52) EPS. The firm's revenue was up 260.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Moderna, Inc. will post -6.41 EPS for the current year.

Moderna 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.

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