Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Moderna Call Options (NASDAQ:MRNA)

Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Traders bought 179,268 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 83% compared to the average volume of 97,935 call options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Shannon Thyme Klinger sold 1,418 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.79, for a total transaction of $60,676.22. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 19,717 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $843,690.43. This trade represents a 6.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders have sold a total of 2,664 shares of company stock valued at $115,210 in the last 90 days. 15.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Moderna

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Moderna by 7.4% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 18,664,634 shares of the company’s stock worth $776,075,000 after acquiring an additional 1,282,469 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Moderna by 12.1% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,847,212 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,125,899,000 after purchasing an additional 1,823,276 shares in the last quarter. Theleme Partners LLP raised its holdings in shares of Moderna by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Theleme Partners LLP now owns 7,306,861 shares of the company’s stock valued at $303,819,000 after buying an additional 72,028 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Moderna by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,241,354 shares of the company’s stock worth $300,219,000 after buying an additional 171,774 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Moderna by 21.0% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 5,224,685 shares of the company’s stock worth $349,166,000 after buying an additional 906,114 shares during the last quarter. 75.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Moderna Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of MRNA opened at $35.90 on Thursday. Moderna has a 12-month low of $29.25 and a 12-month high of $170.47. The company has a market cap of $13.82 billion, a PE ratio of -3.87 and a beta of 1.59. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $38.35 and a 200-day moving average price of $53.34.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MRNA has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Berenberg Bank raised their price objective on shares of Moderna from $33.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. HSBC upgraded shares of Moderna from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $58.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $69.00 price objective (down previously from $115.00) on shares of Moderna in a research note on Monday, November 18th. UBS Group decreased their target price on Moderna from $96.00 to $78.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Barclays lowered Moderna from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $111.00 to $45.00 in a research note on Tuesday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have given a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $60.63.

Moderna Company Profile

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.