Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. Acquires New Position in Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA)

Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 3,490 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $347,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Xponance Inc. lifted its holdings in Moderna by 6.2% in the fourth quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 42,409 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,218,000 after buying an additional 2,489 shares during the period. AIA Group Ltd lifted its holdings in Moderna by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. AIA Group Ltd now owns 14,264 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,419,000 after buying an additional 365 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Moderna by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 48,900 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,863,000 after buying an additional 2,476 shares during the period. Rakuten Securities Inc. acquired a new position in Moderna in the fourth quarter valued at $107,000. Finally, Slow Capital Inc. lifted its holdings in Moderna by 18.6% in the fourth quarter. Slow Capital Inc. now owns 24,365 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,423,000 after buying an additional 3,816 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.33% of the company’s stock.

Moderna Price Performance

NASDAQ:MRNA traded down $0.59 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $101.41. The stock had a trading volume of 2,608,152 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,160,939. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $100.35 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $93.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 3.42 and a quick ratio of 3.36. Moderna, Inc. has a one year low of $62.55 and a one year high of $144.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $38.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -8.16 and a beta of 1.62.

Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 22nd. The company reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.78) by $1.33. The firm had revenue of $2.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.53 billion. Moderna had a negative net margin of 68.84% and a negative return on equity of 10.23%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 44.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.61 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Moderna, Inc. will post -7.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on MRNA shares. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $125.00 target price on shares of Moderna in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Oppenheimer raised shares of Moderna from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $142.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their target price on shares of Moderna from $82.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Moderna in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $125.00 price objective on shares of Moderna in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Moderna presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $126.49.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Moderna news, insider Shannon Thyme Klinger sold 670 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $94.57, for a total value of $63,361.90. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 8,557 shares in the company, valued at $809,235.49. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, Director Noubar Afeyan sold 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $109.06, for a total transaction of $1,635,900.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 2,101,931 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $229,236,594.86. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Shannon Thyme Klinger sold 670 shares of Moderna stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $94.57, for a total transaction of $63,361.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 8,557 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $809,235.49. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 109,954 shares of company stock worth $11,533,976 in the last 90 days. 15.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Moderna

Moderna, Inc, a biotechnology company, discovers, develops, and commercializes messenger RNA therapeutics and vaccines for the treatment of infectious diseases, immuno-oncology, rare diseases, autoimmune, and cardiovascular diseases in the United States, Europe, and internationally. Its respiratory vaccines include COVID-19, influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus, spikevax, and hMPV/PIV3 vaccines; latent vaccines comprise cytomegalovirus, epstein-barr virus, herpes simplex virus, varicella zoster virus, and human immunodeficiency virus vaccines; public health vaccines consists of Zika, Nipah, Mpox vaccines; and infectious diseases vaccines, such as lyme and norovirus vaccines.