VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al Purchases 23,550 Shares of Moderna, Inc. $MRNA

Key Points

• Virginia Retirement Systems increased its Moderna stake by 64.3% in the fourth quarter, buying 23,550 additional shares and bringing its total holdings to 60,150 shares worth about $1.77 million.
• Other institutional investors also made notable moves, and institutions now own 75.33% of Moderna’s stock, underscoring continued heavy institutional interest in the company.
• Analysts remain cautious on Moderna: the stock has a consensus rating of “Reduce” with a target price of $35.73, while the company recently reported a quarterly EPS loss that missed estimates despite strong revenue growth.

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al boosted its position in shares of Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA - Free Report) by 64.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 60,150 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 23,550 shares during the period. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al's holdings in Moderna were worth $1,774,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Moderna by 15.7% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,216,163 shares of the company's stock valued at $212,223,000 after acquiring an additional 1,115,131 shares in the last quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Moderna in the 2nd quarter valued at about $23,192,000. Bank of America Corp DE grew its holdings in shares of Moderna by 84.3% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,779,309 shares of the company's stock valued at $49,091,000 after acquiring an additional 813,974 shares in the last quarter. Theleme Partners LLP grew its holdings in shares of Moderna by 8.6% in the 2nd quarter. Theleme Partners LLP now owns 7,868,810 shares of the company's stock valued at $217,100,000 after acquiring an additional 626,420 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Telemark Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Moderna in the 3rd quarter valued at about $12,915,000. Institutional investors own 75.33% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MRNA has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated a "market perform" rating and issued a $45.00 target price on shares of Moderna in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Moderna from $43.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Jefferies Financial Group set a $37.00 price objective on shares of Moderna and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 3rd. TD Cowen restated a "hold" rating on shares of Moderna in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Moderna from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th. 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 company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Reduce" and a consensus target price of $35.73.

Insider Activity

In other Moderna news, Director Abbas Hussain sold 5,682 shares of the company's 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 sale, the director directly owned 12,066 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $562,637.58. This represents a 32.01% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, President Stephen Hoge sold 160,009 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.84, for a total transaction of $7,814,839.56. Following the completion of the sale, the president directly owned 1,457,427 shares of the company's stock, valued at $71,180,734.68. The trade was a 9.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders own 10.80% of the company's stock.

Moderna Stock Performance

Shares of Moderna stock opened at $49.04 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.35, a current ratio of 2.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. Moderna, Inc. has a twelve month low of $22.28 and a twelve month high of $59.55. The stock has a market cap of $19.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.02 and a beta of 1.05. The company's fifty day moving average is $51.56 and its 200 day moving average is $40.86.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA - Get Free Report) last released 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). Moderna had a negative net margin of 143.55% and a negative return on equity of 26.64%. The firm had revenue of $389.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $236.37 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($2.52) EPS. Moderna's quarterly revenue was up 260.2% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Moderna, Inc. will post -6.79 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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