Nykredit A S Invests $913,000 in Moderna, Inc. $MRNA

Key Points

• Nykredit A/S purchased a new $913,000 position in Moderna during the second quarter, buying 13,042 shares. Institutional investors collectively own 75.33% of the company.
• Analyst views remain mixed: seven analysts rate Moderna a Buy, 12 recommend Hold and five rate it Sell. The stock has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $76.72, despite several analysts recently raising their targets.
• Moderna’s shares opened at $145.55, near the upper end of their 52-week range, while the company reported better-than-expected quarterly results with a loss of $1.97 per share and $145 million in revenue.

Nykredit A S purchased a new position in Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA - Free Report) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 13,042 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $913,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in Moderna in the second quarter valued at $298,000. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board grew its position in shares of Moderna by 10.2% during the second quarter. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board now owns 17,300 shares of the company's stock worth $1,212,000 after acquiring an additional 1,600 shares during the last quarter. Toth Financial Advisory Corp increased its holdings in shares of Moderna by 574.6% in the 2nd quarter. Toth Financial Advisory Corp now owns 2,260 shares of the company's stock worth $158,000 after acquiring an additional 1,925 shares during the period. Mufg Securities Americas Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Moderna by 10.5% in the 2nd quarter. Mufg Securities Americas Inc. now owns 10,637 shares of the company's stock worth $745,000 after acquiring an additional 1,015 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of Moderna by 4.4% in the 2nd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,461,574 shares of the company's stock worth $172,384,000 after acquiring an additional 103,977 shares during the period. 75.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MRNA has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Moderna from $41.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. William Blair initiated coverage on Moderna in a report on Friday, August 28th. They set an "outperform" rating on the stock. Barclays boosted their price objective on Moderna from $48.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Monday, August 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on Moderna from $67.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 19th. Finally, UBS Group set a $81.00 target price on Moderna in a research report on Thursday. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and five have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Moderna presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $76.72.

Insider Activity

In other Moderna news, insider Shannon Klinger sold 3,471 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $139.95, for a total transaction of $485,766.45. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 74,129 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $10,374,353.55. This represents a 4.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, President Stephen Hoge sold 53,336 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.37, for a total transaction of $2,739,870.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the president owned 1,483,848 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $76,225,271.76. The trade was a 3.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Company insiders own 10.80% of the company's stock.

Moderna Price Performance

Moderna stock opened at $145.55 on Tuesday. Moderna, Inc. has a 52 week low of $22.28 and a 52 week high of $176.66. The stock has a market cap of $58.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -18.22 and a beta of 1.10. The company's 50-day moving average price is $87.26 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $64.32. The company has a current ratio of 2.29, a quick ratio of 2.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Friday, July 31st. The company reported ($1.97) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of ($2.03) by $0.06. Moderna had a negative return on equity of 28.30% and a negative net margin of 141.43%.The firm had revenue of $145.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $102.93 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($2.13) earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Moderna, Inc. will post -6.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.

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