AXQ Capital LP Acquires 39,835 Shares of Moderna, Inc. $MRNA

AXQ Capital LP lifted its holdings in shares of Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) by 183.2% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 61,584 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 39,835 shares during the period. AXQ Capital LP’s holdings in Moderna were worth $1,816,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in MRNA. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Moderna during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $79,707,000. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in Moderna by 15.7% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,216,163 shares of the company’s stock worth $212,223,000 after purchasing an additional 1,115,131 shares in the last quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC bought a new position in Moderna in the second quarter worth $23,192,000. Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in Moderna by 84.3% in the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,779,309 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,091,000 after purchasing an additional 813,974 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Theleme Partners LLP raised its holdings in Moderna by 8.6% in the second quarter. Theleme Partners LLP now owns 7,868,810 shares of the company’s stock worth $217,100,000 after purchasing an additional 626,420 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 75.33% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Moderna

Here are the key news stories impacting Moderna this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Moderna announced an expanded collaboration with CEPI to develop a potential vaccine against Bundibugyo ebolavirus, with CEPI committing up to $50 million to fund preclinical work and Phase 1 testing. The external funding reduces development risk and highlights continued interest in Moderna’s mRNA platform. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Moderna and Merck presented 5-year data showing intismeran autogene plus KEYTRUDA cut the risk of recurrence or death in high-risk melanoma patients, reinforcing the company’s oncology pipeline and keeping investor attention on a possible future commercial opportunity. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Additional coverage echoed the CEPI Ebola partnership and the melanoma data, but did not add materially new information beyond the original announcements. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Several articles discussed broader interest in mRNA-based personalized cancer vaccines and the relevance of Moderna’s technology, which may be supportive long term but is not an immediate financial catalyst. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: Investors may still be cautious because these are early-stage vaccine and cancer programs, so the news improves sentiment but does not yet change Moderna’s earnings outlook in the near term.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MRNA has been the subject of a number of research reports. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Moderna from $63.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group set a $37.00 price objective on Moderna and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on Moderna from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $45.00 price objective on shares of Moderna in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Moderna in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and five have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Moderna currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $35.73.

Insider Transactions at Moderna

In related news, Director Noubar Afeyan sold 9,263 shares of Moderna stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $46.84, for a total transaction of $433,878.92. Following the sale, the director owned 3,924 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $183,800.16. This trade represents a 70.24% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Abbas Hussain sold 5,682 shares of Moderna stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $46.63, for a total value of $264,951.66. Following the sale, the director directly owned 12,066 shares in the company, valued at $562,637.58. This trade represents a 32.01% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 68,281 shares of company stock valued at $3,280,293 over the last quarter. 10.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Moderna Stock Down 2.4%

NASDAQ MRNA opened at $46.06 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $50.11 and its 200-day moving average price is $42.66. 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 52 week low of $22.28 and a 52 week high of $59.55. The company has a market capitalization of $18.28 billion, a P/E ratio of -5.65 and a beta of 1.05.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 1st. The company reported ($3.40) EPS 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 company had revenue of $389.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $236.37 million. During the same period last year, the business earned ($2.52) EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 260.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Moderna, Inc. will post -6.49 earnings per share for the current 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.