The Vanguard Group, Inc. recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Moderna Inc (NASDAQ:MRNA). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Healthcare company by 0.67% to 26.29 million shares with purchase of 0.18 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 6.90% valued currently at $2.04 billion. In addition, BlackRock Fund Advisors raised its holdings by 51608.0 to 16.53 million shares. And Thélème Partners LLP has lifted its position by 10.42% or 0.65 million shares – to 6.9 million shares.
With over 3.82 million Moderna Inc (MRNA) shares trading Tuesday and a closing price of $97.33 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $372.1 million. The shares have shown a negative half year performance of -19.34% and its price on 12/26/23 gained nearly 2.57%. Currently, there are 385.00M common shares owned by the public and among those 331.42M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 24 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for MRNA have a consensus price objective of $125.24. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $300.00 and a low of $52.00. The average price target is 22.29% above its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -87.17% over that period. But an upside of 67.56% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $100.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 348 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 75 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 2,116,003 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 273 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 2,228,443 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Moderna Inc are Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, Vanguard International Growth Fun, and Scottish Mortgage Investment Trus. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF owns 10.14 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $787.81 million. The company bought an additional 12595.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 2.66% of the shares outstanding. Scottish Mortgage Investment Trus now owns shares totaling to 2.41% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Moderna Inc (NASDAQ: MRNA) opened at $96.39, up $1.5 from a prior closing price of $94.89. However, the script later moved the day high at 97.77, up 2.57%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of 13.94% and -0.81% over the past three months. MRNA shares are trading -45.81% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -53.28% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $62.55 and touched a high of $208.99 over the same period. MRNA has an average intraday trading volume of 4.62 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by 18.07%, 22.42%, and -13.83% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Moderna Inc (NASDAQ: MRNA) shares accounts for 63.32% of the company’s 385.00M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 25.47%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 38.09% and 13.65% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $37.11B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 1.64. The earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at -$9.34. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 5.03% over the week and 5.14% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Moderna Inc (MRNA) will achieve an EPS of -$1.36 for the current quarter, -$2.55 for the next quarter and -$6.11 for 2024. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is -$2.59 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $0.74. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $3.61 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to decrease by -166.70%, and 47.66% over the next financial year.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 24 brokerage firm advisors rate Moderna Inc (MRNA) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.38. Specifically, 9 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 12 of the 24 advise that investors “hold,” and 2 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the MRNA, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. Canaccord Genuity stated their Hold rating for the stock in a research note on November 29, 2023, with the firm’s price target at $82.
